Just another Disney High School AU
by dottydisney
Summary: Yes, this is yet another Disney high school AU, but I'm hoping to put my own original spin on it. Read the lives of the Disney princesses and princes during their high school days, and follow them through all the drama that befalls them.
1. Chapter 1: February 1st

Author's Note: Welcome to my first ever story on this site! I thought I'd just clear a few things up before I begin. For starters, this high school uses the New Zealand School system since that's the system I know best. So if you have any questions feel free to flick me a message or ask in the comments. I have a pretty solid plan for what's going to happen, but if you have any suggestions or requests for something you want in the story, I could bend the plan a little if I like it enough. Only some of the various plotlines are based off the original movies, and some are different plots that I came up with.

Anyway, I think that's all I've got to clear up. If I remember anything else I'll just tack another author's note onto the next chapter. I hope you enjoy the story!

* * *

Elsa fiddled with the hem of her skirt as the car pulled up outside the quaint school building. The town her family had just moved to was small, though it did have the right components to qualify as a proper on the map town, not just a place to stop off for gas during a road trip. The town basically revolved around its schools, as it had a joint primary and intermediate, a high school, and a university. Though all four were also rather small they did take up a large portion of the town, and Elsa was about to become part of it.

As soon as the car came to a stop her sister Anna leapt out the door. Anna was more excited than Elsa could ever imagine. She had a can-do attitude, and at their last school, she did everything she possibly could and somehow still had the energy to spare. This year didn't seem like it would be any different.

"Thanks, mum!" she trilled as she slammed the car door, making the whole vehicle shake.

Their mother shook her head and turned to Elsa, offering her an encouraging smile.

"You're going to be fine Elsa, you'll have new friends before you know it," she tried to reassure her daughter, but it seemed to go through one ear and out the other.

"I'm sure," Elsa said half-heartedly and stepped out onto the street.

Their mother gave them a wave and an encouraging toot of the horn, then disappeared into the traffic. Elsa could feel her hands shaking, and she gripped onto her bag to try and stop them. But now her face was red, and she just wanted to curl into a ball and hide. Suddenly she felt someone tap her on the shoulder, and she jumped.

"Earth to Elsa? Is anyone in there?" it was Anna, "We do have to go in, you know?"

Elsa nodded, "Of course I do. I was just-"

"Great! Then let's go," Anna practically dragged her onto the grounds, and Elsa could only imagine how that looked to the other students.

As Anna led her through the crowds to get to the main building, Elsa took notice of her surroundings. The school itself seemed nice enough. It was a red brick building with bits of white here and there, with a few modern looking add-ons dotted around the place. There was a single stone path that wound through the grass leading to the various entrances and exits, and it diverted around the back of the school to what Elsa could only imagine was a gym of some kind.

The place was packed with more students than she had expected, as she thought that a small town equalled a small population. Some were wandering around aimlessly, looking as lost as she was. Though they had an excuse – they looked like year 9s. The older students looked like they were all catching up with friends and sharing stories about their holidays. None of them seemed to take notice of her and Anna, but she supposed that was a good thing.

"I wonder where the office is…" Anna wondered, finally letting go of Elsa's arm.

After glancing around the grounds, Anna decided that going inside would be a good place to start. Not bothering to grab Elsa this time, she went bounding off in the direction of the main building. Elsa hurried after her, not wanting to lose the only person she knew in the crowds. Just before reaching the main entrance, she saw Anna colliding into another girl and their squeals were audible from a distance.

The girl Anna had crashed into was a red head like her, only hers was more vibrant. Elsa wondered if she had dyed it… it certainly didn't look natural. She rushed over to her sister to help her, but the two girls seemed to be laughing now.

"Oh my god I am so sorry," Anna apologised, putting emphasis on the 'so'.

"No worries," said the other red head, offering her hand to help Anna up.

When Elsa finally caught up with them, Anna was brushing herself off. Elsa glanced over to the other girl, and at first, she was surprised to see what she was wearing. She had a pair of short denim shorts on and a purple crop top patterned with sea shells, something that never would've been allowed at their old school. Her bright red hair was left loose and thick, though it looked slightly damp.

"Ariel are you ok?" another girl's voice called, and yet another ginger came to join them – though her hair colour looked more natural. She was followed by a darker girl, and a girl with impossibly long hair – it went down to her ankles.

"Yeah, fine," the girl – Ariel – said, "This is… uh, what's you name sorry?"

"I'm Anna and this is my sister Elsa," she gestured towards her sister, and Elsa gave a small wave.

"Oh cool! I've always liked that name," she smiled, and Elsa wasn't sure if she was talking about Anna or her.

Ariel went to talk to the other girls, though Elsa didn't pick up their names. She soon returned to Anna, as the other conversation didn't go for very long.

"Are you guys new? I haven't seen you around," Ariel asked, hand on her hip.

"Yup! We just moved here. Actually, do you know where the office is? We kinda need to get our timetables," Anna told her.

"I could show you if you like," Ariel offered, and Anna took her up on her offer.

Elsa and Anna started to follow Ariel to the office, though Elsa could see that Anna was the favourite of the two. The three other girls came with them, and Elsa soon learnt their names through Anna and Ariel's conversation. The third ginger was Giselle, the darker girl was Tiana, and the long haired girl was Rapunzel. All four of them looked about Anna's age, so she guessed that Anna had already found her new group of friends despite that they hadn't even been there for ten minutes.

They soon arrived at a small window in one of the hallways. There was an older looking woman sitting at a desk behind the window, and small sign labelled 'Office' sat in front of her.

"Well, here we are," Ariel announced.

"Do we just go up and ask?" asked Anna, who for the first time that day looked unsure.

Ariel nodded and told them the ropes of how to deal with the always cranky office lady. The rules were simple, be as quick as possible and as polite as possible. Take up too much time and you were bound to be yelled at. After the quick explanation Ariel left with her friends, telling Anna not to be a stranger and talk to them at any time.

They went up at the same time, and the office lady already looked impatient with them.

"Can I help you?" her voice was scratchy and unpleasant, and Elsa cringed slightly.

"We were just wondering if we could get our timetables," Anna asked.

"What year?" now her voice was monotone – they probably weren't the first new students that had asked her for a timetable.

"Year 11," Anna chirped.

"Year 13," said Elsa.

The lady pulled out two maps of the school and shoved them both in their direction.

"You to the year 11 dean, you to the year 13 dean. They're marked on the map," she explained, then went back to whatever she was doing on her computer.

Anna shrugged and they both went away from the window, checking their maps as they did so. Anna smiled as she looked at hers.

"Hey! It's right around the corner," she told her, "You?"

"Top floor."

"Huh. Ok, well I'll see you at the library after school!" Anna bounced off around the corner, leaving Elsa to navigate the school on her own. With a sigh, Elsa started her search.

* * *

By the time she reached the dean's office the bell had already rung, so Elsa wanted to get her time table and go as quickly as possible. She knocked on the door and waited for it to open. It opened to a middle-aged woman with messy blonde hair pulled up into a bun.

"Shouldn't you be in class?" she asked.

"Uh… I came to get my timetable."

"Oh, ok then," she looked bored, "Name?"

"Elsa Sylte."

The woman disappeared into her office for a while. Elsa leant against the wall, nervous about being late to class. She pulled out her phone to check the time, and she was already ten minutes late. The woman reappeared with a slip of paper and handed it to Elsa.

"Anything else?"

"No thank you," Elsa said, and she slammed the door in her face.

Surprised by the dean's rudeness, Elsa looked down to check her timetable. The first class she had was art history, and after checking her map to find out where the class was, she discovered it was on the other side of the school. With a sigh, Elsa shoved the timetable in her bag and started her trek towards her first class


	2. Chapter 2: February 1st

It was no secret that Charlotte Le Bouff was boy crazy. Ever since she arrived at high school at the age of 13, the first thing on her mind wasn't education but finding a decent guy to date her. At first, people had tried to take advantage of her eagerness, but after a less than enjoyable stint with a year 10 Charlotte raised her standards immensely.

Though she only dated the nicer boys, it didn't stop her from having endless crushes on bad boys and smooth talkers. So it was no surprise to anyone that on the first day back Charlotte had already developed a crush on a boy in her year.

He was in her maths and English class (though almost everyone she knew in her year was), and she fell for him the moment she set eyes on him. Instead of focusing on the teacher droning about the plan for the year, she was trying to take in every inch of what he looked like. The colour of his eyes, the way he did his hair, how he dressed, all to recount to her best friend Tiana. She didn't know how Tiana had put up with it all these years, what with boy after boy described to her almost every day. But Tiana was patient, and it was a quality that was a necessity when it came to Charlotte.

Charlotte came skipping out of class and to the library foyer, where she and Tiana had always met. Tiana would usually come out of class with her friends, but she'd wait for Charlotte before she re-joined them. This time, however, there was someone else.

The girl beside her was short and pale, and she her head of fiery red hair had been pulled into two braids that hung over her shoulders. She had a streak of white running through the left braid, which caught her off – wasn't she a bit young to dye her hair?

Tiana waved her over, and Charlotte fought her way through the sea of students. Finally making it to them, she gave them one of her characteristic bright smiles.

"Hey Charlotte, I haven't seen you all day," Tiana said as she brought Charlotte in for a hug.

Not one for small talk, Charlotte cut straight to her news.

"Oh my god Tiana, you wouldn't believe it! There is this absolutely yummy guy in maths and English and oh my god I just can't get enough of him!" Charlotte squealed, leading Tiana and the other girl outside.

"Well, that didn't take long…" Tiana muttered under her breath.

"Huh?"

"Oh nothing," Tiana said with a smile, "Anyway, tell me about the guy."

"Well, I think he's new because I haven't seen him before. And he's got the nicest eyes… So deep and dark… Don't even get me started on his hair! I bet he uses product because I have never seen a guy with hair that soft!"

"You felt his hair?" asked the other girl, clearly caught out by Charlotte's enthusiasm.

"Of course not, silly. I know good hair when I see it," Charlotte told her.

"Oh yeah, Charlotte, this is Anna. She's new this year," Tiana felt bad, having forgotten to introduce her to Charlotte. Well, not that she needed much introduction.

"Oh hey! I'm Charlotte, it's a pleasure."

Anna made a shy wave, then the three girls arrived at their usual lunch spot. It was in the shade of one of the trees that lined the fence, and it was a popular spot for other kids as well. Rapunzel, Ariel, and Giselle had already got their various snacks out and were enjoying the conversation among themselves.

"Hey everyone!" trilled Charlotte as she plonked herself down beside Rapunzel, with Anna and Tiana following suite.

"Hey, Charlotte. Not sitting with Aurora today?" asked Giselle before taking a bite of the apple she'd pulled out from her bag.

Charlotte waved her hand in dismissal. "I can talk to Aurora whenever I want since she's in all my classes. Anyway, there's this really cute guy…"

Charlotte started to repeat her story about the hunk in her class to the other girls. Since Anna had already heard it, she leaned over to Tiana who was busy getting out some food.

"I didn't know she was so loud… When you told me about her I wasn't expecting this. And why wasn't she in any of our classes?" she whispered.

Tiana shrugged, "That's just how she is but you get used to it, don't worry, and she's a year 12. Different year, different classes. "

Charlotte finally finished her story, and though Giselle and Ariel were enamoured by the mysterious hunkster, Rapunzel looked like she couldn't care less. She'd never been romantic to begin with, she was artier then she was romantic.

"Do you even know his name?" asked Rapunzel, doodling on her hand with a ball point pen.

Charlotte nodded, "Naveen… Doesn't it sound exotic?"

Giselle and Ariel nodded dreamily, coming up with their own ideas about Naveen as they did so. The rest of interval was taken up by everyone else's stories about their first two periods and their holidays, though since the other girls were in the same classes there wasn't much variety. Before they knew it, the bell had rung and the teachers started rounding everyone up for next period's classes.

As usual, everyone took their sweet sweet time, and Charlotte's group was no exception. The year 11s had science next, and Charlotte didn't envy them. She'd never been good at science, so she welcomed the chance to drop it with open arms. She had drama, which she'd only taken for its reputation as an easy class. Though there were some that took it seriously, they were vastly outnumbered by people who didn't.

Charlotte didn't have any close friends in drama, but she was still well liked. Once again she recounted her first sighting of Naveen, and to her surprise some of the students knew Naveen.

When she asked them about him, she learnt a few interesting things that only piqued her interest even more. He was a musician, he was rich, and best of all he knew how to show a girl a good time. Those were all the qualities Charlotte loved in a man, and she was desperate to know if he was in any of her other classes. It was a good thing that the drama lesson was an active one, because Charlotte was sure that she wouldn't be able to sit still if it wasn't.

* * *

Period 4 rolled around, and now Charlotte felt like she needed a good sit down – the complete opposite of how she'd felt earlier. French was the only subject that she not only enjoyed but she was also good at it. She made her way through the maze of stairs and hallways to the top floor where all the language classes took place. She had no idea how she'd learnt her way around when she first arrived – the place was like a labyrinth. But she had, and she was grateful.

She poked her head around the door to see if she was in the right class, and she was, so she stepped in and took a seat. After a few minutes spent waiting and scrolling through her phone, one of her friends arrived and sat herself down on the chair next to her.

"Hey," said Aurora, reaching down to her bag to get out her books.

"Hi! So, I saw the cutest guy-"

"Charlotte, I was there," Aurora said with one eyebrow raised.

"Oh yeah… I just haven't seen anyone so yummy!" Charlotte squealed, clapping her hands in glee.

Aurora lacked what Tiana did so well – patience. Aurora didn't have time to worry about other people's crushes, she had to maintain her reputation as well as her current relationship with Gaston. Though she did feel inclined to play matchmaker with Charlotte and Naveen, if not just to shut her up. But then that could also make it worse… Though then again there was a possibility that her crush would pass – they had every other time.

Lost in her own thoughts, Aurora hadn't noticed Charlotte talking about something that wasn't herself, a rare occurrence.

"Hey Aurora," she whispered, "That guy's checking you out."

Her attention grabbed, Aurora glanced in the direction Charlotte was pointing. There was someone checking her out, though there was something about him that seemed kind of… dorky.

Aurora had never seen him before, so he was probably part of the flood of new students. He was ever so slightly tanned, but not enough that it could even qualify as a proper tan. He had light brown hair, though most of it was concealed under a red beanie. He wasn't bad looking… Just not the kind of guy Aurora would want to be seen with.

"Do you like him?" asked Charlotte with a cheek in her voice.

Aurora shook her head, "He doesn't look like my type. Anyway, I want to at least try and keep Gaston for as long as possible. I'd hate to be the subject of gossip."

"I guess the gossip queen can't be gossiped about then," Charlotte turned her attention to doodling in her textbook.

"If someone does they won't survive the week."

Before they could continue their chat, the French teacher came bustling in. He was a portly older man who seemed harmless, but if you got on his bad side there would be hell to pay. Not that many people got on his bad side, as the great entire-class-weeklong-detention of 2014 had scared his other students out of their wits. Needless to say, he was kept as calm as possible.

As the lesson went on, Charlotte found that she wasn't paying attention. Unintentionally she'd written Naveen's name in her textbook, surrounded by doodles of hearts and smiley faces. Aurora shot her a glance, looking down at the doodle then back up at her. Not ashamed of her feelings, she shrugged and carried on embellishing the doodle until it was as good looking as Naveen himself.


	3. Chapter 3: February 4th

To be completely honest, Naveen was not expecting to already have a date the first week back. It had all started on the second day of school when a girl approached him after maths. She had introduced herself as Charlotte (but he could call her Lottie) and asked him if he wanted to sit with her at interval. Since he had never really been wild over his current group, he decided that he may as well take her up on the offer.

What happened next was quite bizarre. Two of the other ginger girls that Charlotte sat with seemed to regard him as some kind of legend that they'd only heard about – had Charlotte already talked him up? But attention was attention, and he took it like he always did, with grace and charm. However when he looked past Charlotte and her carrot-topped posse he noticed three other girls who seemed to found the other half of their group's actions fairly entertaining. Charlotte's words became nothing but background noise as he focused on the girl who had caught his eye the most – Tiana.

She was beautiful, though not in an in your face way. It was almost like she didn't even notice it, though she did look awfully mature for her age. A few inky black curls had escaped from their tight ponytail and framed her face in a flattering manner, and her smile as she tried not to laugh brightened up her whole face.

She was certainly more desirable than Charlotte, anyway.

* * *

As the week went by he got to know Charlotte better, as well as her friend group. But every time he sat with them his eye was always drawn to Tiana. So he could only see disaster when Charlotte invited him into town with her and Tiana. He accepted as he had nothing better to do, so he agreed to meet the girls after school outside the main gates.

"Hey Naveen!" he could hear Charlotte trilling as she ran up the path to meet him. She collided into him with a hug, and though it was unexpected, Naveen took it like a man and hugged her back.

"Hi Charlotte," he croaked, 100% sure that Charlotte's hug was crushing him.

"Hey, I told you to call me Lottie," she instructed with hands on her hips, but then she leaned up to whisper in his ear, "I only let the special guys call me that."

Naveen wasn't entirely sure that they had known each other long enough for him to be one of Charlotte's "special guys," but from what he did know of Charlotte it was best not to cross her.

Soon he saw Tiana winding her way through the students, and he hated to admit it but he was relieved. He did like Charlotte, and he knew that Charlotte liked him, but Tiana was such a breath of fresh air… Tiana finally reached them, and she seemed puffed.

"You run a marathon or something?" asked Charlotte as she adjusted one of the sparkly pink clips in her hair.

Tiana shook her head, "We got out late, and I didn't want to hold us up."

Charlotte let out a small laugh, "Don't worry, I just got her didn't I Naveen?"

"Yeah," Naveen responded.

After making some small talk, the group made their way down the many hills that lead into the downtown. Charlotte nattered all the way down, leaving little to no room for Tiana and Naveen to offer any input.

They weren't the only ones heading into town that day, and many of the other students were ones that Charlotte knew. She took the time to speak to almost every single one of them, and that finally gave Naveen some time to get to know Charlotte.

"So… How did you guys meet?" asked Naveen after a struggle to think of a suitable question.

Tiana shrugged, "I've known her for as long as I can remember. Our mums were good friends, so I guess the friendship was genetic."

Naveen gave a small chuckle, and Tiana shot him a smile.

"I don't know if I could put up with her that long. She's nice, but she's a bit much," Naveen told her.

"You get used to it."

Charlotte soon came bounding towards them, looking like she had something to say.

"Oh my god Tiana you wouldn't believe it!" she cried.

"What is it this time?" she asked, crossing her arms.

"Y'know that arcade we always went to as kids?" she asked, almost bouncing up and down.

"Kinda. I thought it shut down ages ago."

Charlotte shook her head, "Nope, but now it is. We have to go!"

Tiana looked tempted, but Naveen knew that things that seemed great when you were a kid were almost always a huge let down when you were older. Tiana was probably running those thoughts through her head, but Naveen was curious, and though it may mess with his cool guy reputation – he was kind of curious.

"I'd be cool with going," he suggested, earning him a big smile from Charlotte.

"Never mind Tiana, you've been outvoted! Let's go!" she squealed, grabbing Tiana by the hand and sprinting in the direction of the arcade. Naveen ran after them, and despite the odd looks, he was getting from the other students milling around the streets he was having a lot more fun than he expected.

Charlotte soon skidded to a halt outside an old building with a crappy, pinkish red paint job. It was peeling around the edges, and a worn out sign reading "Ray's Arcade" sat on the streets. Naveen was expecting something much more modern, but a lot of the shops and cafes were inside older buildings. It was part of the town's charm, he guessed. Though he was surprised that Charlotte would be caught dead in a place like this.

The trio went inside, and the place was almost deserted save for a few intermediate students. The inside was more impressive than the outside, with a sort of fifties diner vibe going on. The machines looked pretty retro, and the floor was covered with black and white tiles. The counter where the tickets were exchanged for prizes was bright red and had round bar stools in a matching colour.

"Whaddya think Naveen?" Charlotte asked, already making her way to the pinball machine.

"It's cool. Can't say I noticed it before, though," he said, taking notice of the dust covering some of the machines.

"Tiana and I used to come her all the time, didn't we Tiana?"

"Every day after school," Tiana replied.

"Thanks to that I'm a pinball wiz," Charlotte said as she slid a few coins into the slot.

Naveen approached to watch, hoping it would be a pretty decent game to watch. But even though Charlotte was a self-proclaimed pinball wiz, almost as soon the game started she had already lost. She twisted her mouth into a frown and slid in another coin. Another failure.

"At least I thought I was… Oh well, I'm probably just rusty," she returned to her positive self and started to head towards the other machines.

They spent most of the afternoon there, and they stayed long after the intermediate students had left. Charlotte soon found something she was good at – ski ball – and soon racked up an enviable amount of tickets. Tiana displayed a decent prowess at whack-a-mole, and soon she was smashing the things so hard Naveen was sure she was going to break it. Naveen found himself struggling with the more physical games, but he aced some of the virtual shooting games.

By the time the arcade was about to close they had a hefty amount of tickets between them. Though they made a plan for a secret Santa type thing where they'd all buy each other a gift, but their tickets were squandered on a stuffed bear that Charlotte just had to have.

"Hey Naveen…" Charlotte said, the tone of her voice indicated that she wanted something.

"Yeah?" he asked, preparing himself for some ridiculous request.

"Wanna walk me home?"

"Uh, sure I guess. Where do you live?"

"Not far, we can definitely walk there. And it's not like it's late or anything…." She gazed up at him big puppy dog eyes, and Naveen just couldn't refuse.

"Sure. How about you Tiana?" he accepted, and Charlotte's face brightened.

Tiana shook her head, "Thanks, but my house is just down the road."

"You live in the city?" he asked.

"Yeah, I live in an apartment. See you guys tomorrow?" she explained.

"See you Tiana!" Charlotte called as Tiana made her way down the street.

Naveen and Charlotte started their walk through town to Charlotte's house. The sun was only just beginning to go down, and the sky started to turn a vibrant shade of orange. There were other people around, some Naveen recognised from school and others he didn't. They rounded a corner onto a residential street – and a swanky one at that.

Most of the houses were like mini mansions, with primly cut hedges and the occasional topiary peeking over the top. Fancy cars sat in fancy driveways, and children played in the pools that took up a large portion of the front gardens. Most of the houses were white, though a few were black, grey, or even cream. Aside from that, they all looked pretty much the same, and Naveen wasn't sure if he would be able to remember which one was Charlotte's if he ended up coming back.

"Here we are," she announced as they approached one of the grey houses.

Naveen looked up at the house, "Looks-"

Before Naveen could finish, Charlotte had reached up and pulled his face towards hers. A kiss followed, and it took Naveen completely by surprise. Though Charlotte was a good kisser, so he didn't really mind. Charlotte pulled away, and with a coy smile, she said, "See you tomorrow."

With that she sauntered up to her front door and entered, giving him a wink as she shut it behind her. Naveen was left on the sidewalk feeling rather good about himself, but shortly afterwards his mind drifted back to Tiana.

The last thing he wanted to be in was a love triangle, but with the way things were going it was only inevitable.


	4. Chapter 4: February 12th

Belle jogged up the stairs, dodging the students coming down from their previous classes. While most of them were heading out to enjoy the summer sun and have lunch with friends, Belle had other things on her mind. The first debate meeting of the year was taking place, and she was excited to meet her new teammates. Surely they'd be as enthusiastic as she was?

She walked past the year 13 common room, and the smell of hot food wafted into the halls. The year 13 common room was the only one in the school with a microwave, and it wasn't uncommon for a year 11 or 12 to slip in and impersonate a year 13 just to use it. Belle was too much of a goody-two-shoes to bother, though.

She made her way to the classrooms, double checking her phone that she was in the right place. She was, and she wasn't alone.

There was a boy there, and she wasn't sure if she recognised him or not. His red hair was just long enough to be pulled into a messy ponytail, and it looked like it needed a good wash. He was staring out the window and looking incredibly bored, almost like he didn't want to be there. Or perhaps he was just lonely? Belle decided she'd take the liberty of starting the conversation.

"Are you here for the debate meeting?" she asked, setting her bag down on one of the desks.

He gave an affirmative grunt. Belle had expected him to be much more receptive, but she was good with people – and she loved a challenge.

"I'm Belle, it's nice to meet you," she said. She pulled up a chair and sat beside him.

He gave her a judging look and then proceeded to pull out a book and begin reading. Belle started to get annoyed, he could at least introduce himself!

"We are meant to get to know each other you know," she tried to get through to him. However, he remained silent.

Belle couldn't help but glance over at his book, and though she couldn't quite pick up all of the text she recognised it – she'd read it more times than she could count.

"I didn't pick you as a Bronte fan," she said, and he looked up.

She'd finally got his attention!

"I'm not… I uh… It's for school…"

Not only did she have his attention, but he even spoke! This was progress, though it was small. But if this was the only progress she'd make, she wasn't sure how much longer she could stand it. One of the largest components of a good debating team was the ability to talk to each other, and they were already failing in that respect. Belle's hopes for the year started to drop.

"Hey, is this debate?"

Belle turned to see a girl standing in the doorway. She was really quite striking, with long dark hair that fell down past her waist and smooth tan skin that lacked the usual blemishes of the teenage years. A tattoo poked out from underneath her t-shirt sleeve, and a turquoise choker with a silver pendant sat on her neck. Belle recognised her as one of the most sought-after girls in school – Pocahontas Matoaka.

She was surprised that someone like her would show up, but she scolded herself for judging a book by its cover, something she was usually good at not doing.

"Yeah, this is debate," Belle confirmed, and Pocahontas dropped her bag down by the door.

"Great turn out…" the taller girl muttered under her breath, and Belle couldn't help but lose some of her confidence.

"I'm sure others will turn up. Anyway, I'm Belle," she introduced herself.

"Pocahontas," she shifted her gaze towards the guy, "Who's that?"

Belle shrugged, "He hasn't spoken since I got here."

"Huh. That certainly helps," Pocahontas said sarcastically.

The two girls sat down at another desk, deciding the guy could stay silent if he wanted to – his loss. They started off by getting to know each other, with Belle expressing her love for books and Pocahontas her love for the environment. It soon dawned on Belle that Pocahontas was going to be a valuable team member. She had a strong opinion (something every good debater needed), and that paired with Belle's strong sense of logic made them a pretty solid team.

Though they did try to include the guy in the conversation, he either responded with shrugs and grunts or just didn't respond at all. He seemed awfully engrossed in his book for someone who was just reading it for a class, so Belle suspected that some untruths had been told. It was kind of amusing how the only thing he had said was a possible lie.

* * *

It soon became apparent that no one else was coming.

Though a debate team did only need three people, Belle was hoping for another team or two. Even just an extra student as a backup would've been nice, but everyone either missed the memo or just weren't interested. Not even the teacher in charge had shown up, which was the most shocking thing of all.

Pocahontas checked the time on her phone and let out a groan of frustration, "It's already ten to two, do you think we should even bother staying?"

Belle contemplated the thought. True, there wasn't much point in staying, but she did have the slightest hope that just one other person would show up. It did seem pretty unlikely, but Belle liked to hope for the best.

"I guess not… You two could go if you want, I might stay behind just in case," Belle responded.

"Are you sure? We could stay if you want."

Belle shook her head, "No, go ahead. You probably have better things to do anyway."

"Alright, see you next Friday then," Pocahontas said as she went to pick up her bag.

Belle was surprised, she thought after this meagre turn out the whole thing would be cancelled. "You mean you'll come back?"

"May as well. I still want to do it, despite who shows up. See you later," she said, and she disappeared out the door.

Belle couldn't help but feel good after that. She was coming back! One of the more popular people in school was interested in spending more time with her! Well, she was more interested in debate than in Belle, but she'd take what she got. She turned around to face the guy.

"You can go too if you like."

But he just sat there as if she hadn't said anything. Belle repeated herself in case he genuinely hadn't heard her before, but once again there was no response. Belle hated to admit it, but she was starting to get fed up with him. He'd had to talk eventually, even if it was to just give his name. She did have to take the role after all, and she knew he wasn't mute – he'd talked earlier.

After a minute or two of silence, Belle decided that the best option was the straight forward option.

"Is there a reason why you aren't talking to me?" she asked, and he looked up at her for the first time since the beginning of the meeting.

Unfortunately, all he did was shrug.

"Look, could you at least give me your name so I can put it on the role?" she asked.

After a few seconds of silence, Belle was sure he wouldn't respond again. But as soon as she opened her mouth to speak, he interrupted her.

"Adam."

"Huh?" Belle couldn't help but be slightly shocked that he actually replied to something.

"That's my name, happy now?"

A smile broke out on her face and she instantly went digging around in her bag for her refill pad. She pulled it out as well as a pen and scribbled Debate Team at the top of the page. She wrote Adam's name below it and then looked back up at him.

"Last name?"

"Regnard."

She wrote it beside his first name, thinking to herself about how nice a name it was. If he was giving her his name, did that mean he was coming back? Belle certainly hoped so, as he was as interesting as he was irritating.

"Thank you," she said as she finished jotting down his name. She bent down to put her pad back in her bag, but when she stood back up Adam was leaving. Surprised, Belle called after him.

"Hey! Where are you going?" she asked, almost grabbing his arm but pausing before she did.

"To class."

"But the bell hasn't rung!" Belle protested.

Adam nodded, "Yeah, it did. Bye."

With that, Adam was gone, and Belle could only watch as he stalked down the corridor and past the year 13 lockers. He rounded the corner and disappeared, leaving Belle staring at nothing. She shook her head to bring herself down to the real world. She started to gather up her things, but thoughts of Adam plagued her mind.

Was he that standoffish to everyone? Or was it just her. But he didn't talk to Pocahontas either, so maybe he was just rude to everyone. Was that just who he was, or had something happened to make him that way? It occupied her mind all through fifth period and on her walk home. It was only until she fell asleep that night that she forgot him.


	5. Chapter 5: February 15th

Pocahontas had a secret, and that secret was that she was gay.

She knew her friends wouldn't mind, but they were five people amongst her entire school. She had a feeling that it wouldn't go uncriticised, and if one person found out the whole school would. There was also her parents to consider as well.

Her parents were very traditional, and it seemed like they had Pocahontas's life planned out the moment she was born. She'd grow up, get married, have a kid, rinse and repeat with the next generation. Even if she were straight, Pocahontas wouldn't want that. She'd want to be free to travel and work and settle down when she felt like it. But the thought of coming out to her parents was terrifying, as they were as judgemental as they were traditional. God knows what would happen to Pocahontas if they found out… And she loved her parents – she didn't want to disappoint them.

They'd drilled it into her head that it was wrong to be gay, and Pocahontas had believed it. So when she figured it out… She was scared.

But who knows. Maybe she'd just have to change herself?

Pocahontas hated biology. She had hated it in year 12 as well, but her parents wanted her taking at least one science, and biology was the least awful. So there she was, being bored to death every second period, praying for the bell to ring.

At last, the bell rang, and though it sounded like a dying cat it was the sweetest sound in the world. It seemed that she wasn't the only one keen to make an escape, as almost as soon as it went everyone started packing up their things. Pocahontas sat by the door, so when they were dismissed she was the first one out. As usual, the courts were almost empty save for a few lucky students who got out extra early. She made her way to her usual spot, past the turf and into the shade of the trees. Sitting on the overgrown roots of the largest tree, she started to pull out her food.

A little while later some of her friends started showing up. First came two year 11 guys, Flynn and Kristoff. Pocahontas prided herself in her approachability, and it was because of this that her friend group was so large and so varied in its year groups and genders.

"Hey guys," she said as the two of them plonked down on the grass beside her.

The three of them engaged in idle chatter about their morning until the rest of their group started to show up. Among them were two other girls Pocahontas knew, the sporty and feminine Mulan and the rebellious and playful Merida.

"God my classes are so awkward…" Mulan groaned as she sat herself down.

"Do tell," said Pocahontas, who was curious to hear what Mulan had to say as she very rarely complained about anything.

"Y'know Charlotte Le Bouff?" she asked, and Merida rolled her eyes.

"Who doesn't?"

"True. Anyway, she couldn't keep her hands off that Naveen guy, and guess who sits between them in maths?" Mulan explained, then pointed at herself.

"Shame!" said Flynn, who was listening in on the conversation.

Mulan stuck her tongue out at him in a playful manner, then returned to Merida and Pocahontas.

"What were they even doing? I doubt they could do anything drastic in class," asked Pocahontas.

"Hand holding under the table, not so subtle flirting, the usual. Though it was mostly Charlotte."

"I wonder how he does it?" asked Flynn.

"Does what?" Merida turned her attention to the brunette.

"Put up with her for that long."

"I have a feeling he didn't have a choice," Pocahontas added, and a few of her friends chuckled.

The rest of interval was spent gossiping about Mulan's maths woes until the aforementioned year 12 noticed something that piqued her interest. She tapped Pocahontas on the shoulder and whispered to her.

"Don't look know, but someone's checking you out."

Pocahontas was used to hearing that, so the task of not looking didn't require much effort. Apart from maybe Jasmine Farah in year 12, Pocahontas seemed to be one of the most desirable girls in school. Almost every guy in school seemed to be turned on by her, and Pocahontas couldn't see why. Yeah, she was attractive, but not _that_ attractive. Maybe they saw something she didn't? But she had turned them all down because of one big glaring issue – her sexuality. She felt no attraction to them whatsoever. She could appreciate a good looking guy, but she wasn't drooling at the idea of getting into his pants – in fact, she was the opposite. But her parent had told her that it was a thing to be ashamed of, and she had thought of trying to get rid of it…

Maybe this guy was a good place to start at?

"Do you know him?" she asked, and Mulan furrowed her brow.

"I think he's a year 13. He's definitely not in my year, and he looks way too… chiselled to be anything lower. You might know him," she told her.

"Describe him."

"Well he's blonde, and that's as much as I can see from over here. He's still looking, though," said Mulan.

Pocahontas decided she'd take a quick glance at the blonde in question, and she recognised him almost instantly. His name was John Smith, and if you got in a relationship with him you could be 100% sure it would last for the rest of the year. John had risen to fame by having one big relationship every year, and every girl had been different. The only difference between them was that he dumped them the next year, though nobody knew why. It was just his thing.

Pocahontas didn't know him personally, he was in her PE class and that was about it. He was your typical sporty guy, kind of a dick sometimes, but wasn't everyone?

She supposed she could give it a shot. Nothing like the straightest guy in school to fix her…

"You know him?" Mulan asked.

"Yeah, I've got a class with him next."

"Oh my god you should totally chat him up!" Mulan seemed more excited then she should be.

"I guess… But who knows, maybe he was checking you out and not me," Pocahontas joked, earning her a punch in the arm from Mulan.

"Nope, he was definitely looking at you."

Pocahontas gave her friend a smile, and the bell rang as she did. It took a while for them to get up and go to class, but in the end, they did. Since Pocahontas and Mulan had PE at the same time, they went to the gym together. Waving goodbye to Merida, they set out to PE.

* * *

 _How am I going to do this?_

Pocahontas looked at herself in the mirror, brushing a piece of long dark hair behind her ear. It was always certain that you'd look like a mess after an active PE session, and today was no different.

The one day Pocahontas wanted to look good, and she got hit in the eye with a golf ball. Why were they even studying golf anyway? Pocahontas often questioned the school's decisions, but golf? Really? But the point was that her eye was already looking swollen. She took a deep breath. At least she wasn't sweating like a pig…

Finally, she stepped out into the corridor, and there he was. John was just waiting by the door, probably waiting for his friends or something. It was now or never… Pocahontas started to approaching, butterflies dancing in her stomach. John noticed her before she could say anything, so he took it upon himself to start the conversation.

"Hey! How's your eye?" he asked, and Pocahontas went bright red.

"Uh, it's fine thanks. How was the rest of class?" she asked, trying to keep the conversation away from her eye.

John shrugged, "It was about as exciting as golf can get."

"So dull then?" she asked. John nodded, and she laughed, "To be honest I'm kind of glad I got out when I did."

"Yeah, you're probably better off with a black eye than a comprehensive knowledge of golf…"

Pocahontas shook her head, "It's so ridiculous. Anyway, I was kind of wondering if you'd want to hang out sometime."

Her request must have taken John by surprise, as his usually squinty eyes went wide. Now he was blushing, and it was kind of funny.

"Uh… yeah, sure. What do you… uh… want to do?" he asked, stumbling over his words – something entirely unlike him.

She supposed he was the one asking the girls out, not the other way round. It was probably a strange phenomenon to him, and Pocahontas was already starting to warm up to him. But it was in a friendly way, not what she wanted.

Pocahontas shrugged, "I thought we could grab something at the food court and see what happens."

"Sounds good. How about tomorrow?" he suggested, and Pocahontas nodded.

"Ok then. See you later," Pocahontas said, and with a wave, she made her way to her next class.

As soon as she got away from the gym she pulled out her phone and scrolled down to Mulan's name. She opened up their conversation and started typing.

 _Guess who just got themselves a date!_

* * *

a/n: So I'm just going to clear up that Pocahontas's opinion on being gay does not mirror my opinion at all. I think it's perfectly fine to be gay (or anything on the LGBT spectrum really), and Pocahontas's goal of 'getting rid of it' is merely a plot point, not recreating my own opinion. Just thought I'd explain that before everyone started sharpening their pitchforks. Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this chapter!


	6. Chapter 6: February 18th

Mulan had never been a morning person, so English (her first-period class) was never an easy task. As if dragging herself out of bed at 7.30 wasn't bad enough, she actually had to concentrate in class… But she supposed it was better than maths.

After dressing in a tank top and shorts, she grabbed her bag from beside her bed, then hurried to the kitchen to grab her lunch money. Her parents and her grandmother were all up, reading the newspaper, making breakfast, and other domestic morning activities.

"Hey daddy," she said as she took the rolled up five dollar note from the counter.

"Good morning Mulan," he said, pouring himself a cup of coffee.

Coffee… She could do with some of that. Mulan reached into the cupboard for a muesli bar and took a bite of it, taking a moment to savour the sweet berry flavour of her small breakfast.

"Mulan, isn't it time you should be going?" asked her mother, and Mulan checked her watch.

8.00… Crap!

Mulan nearly choked on her bar when she saw the time, and after saying a quick goodbye to her family and her dog, Little Brother, she dashed out the door and onto the street.

Fifty minutes seemed like a lot of time to get to school, but Mulan lived a long way away from school. She needed an hour at least, but if she ran some of the way… Mulan broke into a sprint, back bouncing against her back, the straps digging into her shoulders. It was a good thing she was fit, but she wasn't sure if even she could run the whole way.

By 8.30, she was exhausted, and she had only just made it to the downtown area. She saw some other students she recognised from school, some dawdling it a painfully slow pace and some power walking their way to school. Mulan decided to give herself a break and walked the rest of the way, as school was just a few corners and a hill away.

With a sigh, Mulan started her trek through town.

* * *

She arrived fifteen minutes later, with just enough time to make it to class. She went into the main building and up the small flight of stairs to the English block and made her way past the other classes until she reached her own. Fortunately, class hadn't started yet, and students were getting up to their usual disruptive activities.

Jasmine Farah had attached her phone to the classrooms speakers and was blasting her music over them. It was the usual emotionless EDM that Jasmine was so fond of, but Mulan was used to it – this wasn't the only time she'd taken control of the speakers before class. Some of the more popular kids like Aurora Rodier and Hans Lystad were sitting in the box windows gossiping to their hearts content while a dark-haired boy (Eric? She was pretty sure his name was Eric) who was with them looked like he'd rather be anywhere but there. Charlotte had taken Naveen to the back of the room to engage him in some rather inappropriate actions, but Naveen didn't seem to mind. Mulan made sure to cover her eyes.

The other people in the class were just chatting amongst themselves, studying, or reading, and Mulan planned to join them. She noticed that one girl was standing by the door, a lookout maybe? Her suspicions were confirmed when the girl suddenly called out.

"Guys she's coming!"

The whole class seemed to go into a simultaneous panic mode, and they instantly stopped what they were doing and rushed back to their desks at lightning speed. Jasmine unplugged her phone and almost leapt over one of the tables to make it to her seat – which was beside Mulan.

"Hey," she said as she pulled out her phone and put the camera into front view to check her long, glossy black hair.

"Hi," Mulan responded, absentmindedly playing with her own hair. It was the same raven black colour as Jasmines and about the same length, but somehow Jasmine's hair always looked better.

Mulan shrugged, to be honest, she didn't care.

A few seconds later their teacher came in, a fairly unexciting woman with a personality to match. Nothing like a dull woman to teach an otherwise interesting subject, and it was all down to her that sent English from one of Mulan's favourite subjects to one of her least favourites.

The teacher introduced the lesson and told them about their first internal – a film study. Mulan had never been much a movie buff. She'd seen the ones everyone had seen, like _Jurassic Park_ and _Star Wars_ , but other than that she had never really bothered. Maybe this would change her mind?

In the same monotone voice, the teacher told them that they'd be working in pairs. Some members of the class groaned, but Mulan wasn't bothered. She was very much a people person. When the teacher started to read out the pairs, the reaction was even worse.

"Charlotte Le Bouff and Adam Regnard."

Charlotte nearly cried out in disappointment, making poor Adam go bright red.

"Aurora Rodier and Jasmine Farah."

The two girl's mouths turned into smiles of satisfaction.

Mulan was one of the last names called, and after all the other people she wanted to be paired with had been called she didn't have high hopes. But if she got a slacker as her partner, she could probably just do the project by herself – it wouldn't be the first time.

"Mulan Fa and Phillip Ancel."

Not recognising the name, Mulan took a quick look around the class to try and find him. It was only when she saw a guy with a red beanie on waving to her that she recognised him. She'd only known him as red beanie guy – did he ever take that thing off?

After all the pairs had been read out the teacher instructed them to go and sit with their partners. Mulan went to get up, but when she saw that Phillip was already making his way over to her she remained seated. He took a seat opposite her, and Mulan gave him a friendly smile.

"Hi, I'm Mulan," she introduced herself.

"Phillip. Hey, do you have any idea what we're even studying?" he asked, and Mulan shrugged.

"Something pretentious I guess, but I don't know."

Before they could continue their conversation, the teacher started to talk again. She announced that they could pick their film, and that gained a more positive reaction from the class. Mulan just hoped Phillip had seen a movie worth studying, as she doubted _Jurassic Park_ had much to study. How much symbolism could you get from giant angry dinosaurs?

The teacher gave them the rest of class to decide on their film, so of course, nobody did that. Mulan liked to be on task, but she also liked to talk about irrelevant things, so she decided to get what film they were doing out of the way.

"Any ideas?" she asked her partner, and he took a moment to think.

"We could do _Freedom Writers_ ," he suggested, and when Mulan's face went blank he explained what it was, "Y'know, inspiring teacher/student relationship deal. We could at least get a merit on it."

"Sounds good. Never heard of it, but sounds good," Mulan agreed, and Phillip chuckled.

"Do you want to come over and watch it sometime?" he asked, and Mulan nodded.

"I guess it's better to have actually seen the movie we're studying."

"Right."

With that cleared up, the two of them went on to get to know each other. Phillip revealed himself to be the polar opposite of Mulan. He wasn't sporty, he loved movies, and he was able to talk in front of a whole bunch of people. Mulan had never been one for presentations, so if this project needed to be talked about in front of the class Mulan was glad to have Phillip as her partner.

"Are you thinking of doing the production this year?" she asked.

Phillip nodded. "Yeah, but I have no idea what to expect."

"Didn't you do it last year?"

"Nope, I only just got here this year," Phillip told her.

That explained why she'd never seen him before, and to be kicked herself for not figuring it out sooner.

"Good luck with that then," she said with a smile.

"What about you? Are you trying out for anything this year?" he asked.

"Yup, rugby and football. Rugby won't be too difficult to get into, but I'm kinda worried about football…" she trailed off.

"Why?" he asked.

"You know how it is. It's practically a testosterone jungle," she said.

"I could come and watch if you wanted," he offered.

"Huh?"

"Your football trial. Y'know, for moral support and stuff."

"Oh yeah, sure! If you wanted to anyway," Mulan agreed.

After that Mulan agreed to go with him to his production audition, and then they started to talk about more mundane things like what classes they were taking and what not.

But as usual, long before the bell actually rung the teacher told them to get ready to go to their next class. The bell rung at least five minutes after they were all ready to go, and after giving half-hearted thank yous to the teacher they all went to their next class.

Mulan braced herself for another unpleasant period between Charlotte and Naveen, and she could only hope that she'd make it out unscathed.


	7. Chapter 7: February 25th

Phillip waited outside the performing arts center, occasionally checking his phone for the time. The time for production auditions had finally come around, and even though he'd done plenty of school productions back at his old school, he felt nervous. It could be the fact that it was a new school, but he wasn't worried about that. His main problem was that the production was one of Shakespeare's plays – something Phillip had never done before. He found it hard to imagine that a bunch of high school seniors could be trusted with Shakespeare, but who was he to judge?

He looked up from his phone, thinking it was Mulan (who had promised to be his support team). But Mulan was nowhere to be seen, just a striking girl with long blonde hair and a rather revealing outfit. Phillip knew her, she was Aurora Rodier – the queen bitch of the school.

Despite her cold glares and the frightening amount of joy she felt when others were insulted behind their back, Phillip couldn't help but fall head over heels in love with her. Granted, she was an attractive woman, anyone could see that, but there was something about her that made him feel… funny… His friends always said he had a terrible taste in women, so he was probably just continuing the tradition.

"You here for the audition?" she asked, rooting around in the pocket of her shorts.

Phillip promptly forgot how to speak English.

"Um, uh… yes," he said, his face flushing from a light pink to a deep red.

Aurora looked him up and down, looking decidedly unimpressed.

"Oh."

She proceeded to saunter her way into the performing arts building, leaving Phillip with his mouth hanging open like a fish. He quickly shut it, violently cursing inside his head. Why did he have to screw that up? She probably thought he was an idiot now… She'd never even give him a second thought… Maybe his family should just move away again? Most of their stuff was still unpacked…

"Hey, Phillip!"

Phillip looked up, startled, to see Mulan dashing down the stone steps to reach him. She looked flushed and slightly sweaty, waving manically as her PE bag bounced against her hip. Phillip gave her a half-hearted wave as she made her way down.

"Told you I'd show up," she said proudly, puffing slightly.

"I didn't doubt it," he said, still shaken from his encounter with Aurora.

Mulan looked at him, cocking her head with concern. "You ok? You look like you just saw a ghost."

"No." Phillip shook his head, and after Mulan discovered that he wasn't going to say anything else the two of them went into the performing arts building.

They were the only other people there aside from Aurora, who was now busy texting. She was probably texting her friends about the idiot she saw before auditions, and after that thought, Phillip went bright red once more. This earned him an odd look from Mulan, but he brushed off her concern.

After the two of them chatted quietly amongst themselves for a few minutes, some other students started to show up. The first one to arrive was a red head who almost immediately went to Aurora, and she discarded her phone as soon as he arrived. Phillip also recognised him from their maths and English class as Hans Lystad, whose bitchiness was only second to Aurora's.

Shortly after Hans' arrival came Charlotte, and of course she had Naveen in tow. Phillip could hear Mulan groaning, and he couldn't help but smile. Later another redhead wandered in, who despite having no one to talk to looked quite happy. Phillip noticed Hans shooting her a quick smile, and the girl blushed and started to fiddle with one of her braids.

After some other students arrived the foyer was packed, then finally the last students arrived. They came in a group of three, two girls and a guy. One of the girls had orangey blonde hair pulled up into a bun, and the other had a short black bob accented with a bright red bow. The guy had darkish brown hair, and he was holding hands with the dark haired girl. The dark haired girl took notice of Phillip and hurried over to him.

"Hey Snow," said Phillip as the older girl arrived.

"I knew you'd show up in the end," she said with a smile, her lips covered with a bright red lipstick. She took notice of Mulan. "Who's this?"

"That's Mulan," said Phillip, and Mulan waved. "Mulan, this is Snow, and those two are Cinderella and Florian."

Mulan smiled, "So you're the famous Snow White, most popular girl in school."

Snow gave a modest smile. "Well, I wouldn't say that…"

Snow noticed the clock and her eyes went wide.

"Oh gosh! We'd better get going on the auditions."

Snow started to call everyone into the small theatre, and soon it started filling up with excited students. Phillip and Mulan followed Florian and Cinderella and took their seats at the front, nearest to the stage. Once everyone was seated, Snow hopped up onto one of the plastic chairs dotted around the room.

"Hello everyone! My name is Snow White, I'm the student coordinator for our production this year. Welcome to the auditions. They officially end at five, but if you need to leave earlier then please come and see me…"

Snow went on to tell everyone about the play, revealing it to be Much ado About Nothing, and that there were limited roles. After more exposition she started giving out scripts to all the students, enlisting Florian to help her get around everyone. While this went on, Cinderella leaned over to talk to Mulan.

"Who are you auditioning for?" she asked.

"Me? Oh, I'm not auditioning, I'm just here for moral support," she explained.

"Really? That's so sweet of you," she smiled then turned her attention to Phillip, "Are you guys thinking of getting serious?"

For the third time that afternoon, Phillip went bright red.

"No!" he said almost too loudly, earning him a few odd looks from nearby students. "I mean, uh… no offense Mulan, but uh…"

The two girls just laughed.

"I had no idea you were so awkward," Mulan chuckled.

Soon Snow had returned to her chair, clearing her throat to get everyone's attention.

"So everyone should have the script for act one scene one. Could everyone please split into groups of seven? Thank you. You'll all get fifteen minutes to practice, then we'll start to auditions." With that, Snow hopped off of her chair and the whole room burst into chatter.

Snow returned to her group, script in hand.

"There's five of us, so we just need two more," Snow said, but Mulan shook her head.

"I'm not auditioning," she said.

Before Snow could say anything in reply, the squeals of Charlotte came into their line of hearing.

"I noticed you guys were two people down!" she chirped, skipping down the stairs with Naveen at her heels.

"Three actually…" Mulan said under her breath.

Snow dashed off to find an extra person for their group. Phillip felt someone tap on his shoulder, and he whirled around to see Florian. Phillip got along with Florian quite well, as he had been the one to welcome him into his friend group, consisting of him, Snow, Cinderella, and her boyfriend Henri.

"So, you and Mulan huh?" he asked jokingly, earning him a light punch on the shoulder from Phillip.

"Nothing is happening between us. We're just friends, ok?" he defended himself, but Florian just smiled.

"That's exactly what I said about Snow…" he said wistfully.

"You are way too romantic…" Phillip sighed.

Florian shrugged. "Can't be helped. Anyway, as I was saying…"

Phillip was about to retort, but Snow came back with the perky ginger girl from before. She was chatting endlessly to Snow, who despite her endless supply of patience seemed to be sick of it already.

"Everyone, this is Anna," Snow introduced, and Anna gave a cheery wave.

After everyone had introduced themselves they got on with practicing their scene, leaving Mulan with very little to do. She wound up pulling a pen out of her back and doodling a design on her arm. By the time they were done practicing an intricate ink dragon circled her wrist. Satisfied, she sat back as the groups started performing in front of the whole group.

Some of the students were monotone and flat, and Snow started to scribble things down on her pad. Was she judging the students even though she was auditioning herself? Mulan thought that was a tad unfair, but a girl like Snow could get away with these things.

After the first group had finished and they were politely clapped off the stage, the second group got on stage. It was Aurora's group, and as the girl performed Mulan couldn't help but notice that Phillip seemed to be paying extra attention to the blonde. Mulan frowned. His friends were right about him having the hots for someone, but it wasn't Mulan – it was Aurora.

Mulan had grown quite fond of Phillip over the short time she had known him, and she did want to see him in a relationship. But it was a shame that the girl he'd fallen for was such a bitch…


	8. Chapter 8: February 25th - 26th

Ariel gazed at the clock, willing the hands to hit 3.20. Dance was normally one of her favourite subjects, it was active and fun and largely student organised. But they'd spent at least a week on theory, and while Ariel knew it was important she also knew that it was paralyzingly dull boring and tedious.

Her friends Anna and Giselle were sitting either side of her, with Giselle listening intently to the lesson and Anna simply gazing at the floor. Normally Anna would have been interested and ask question after question after question, but today she was far too nervous to even speak in the first place.

Anna had successfully made it onto the school's hockey team, and today was their first game. Though she did know a few people on the team (her sister included), her previous experiences with sports had been less than enjoyable, and she'd been bullied by her teammates because of her lack of skill. Ariel and her friends had agreed to come along and watch, but it didn't seem to release any tension.

After what seemed like an age, the clock finally hit 3.20, and Ariel got herself ready to get up and go. At least five minutes afterwards the teacher let them go and the sea of students flooded out into the foyer. Some students were mingling with their friends from drama, as the two classes were in the same building, but Ariel, Giselle, and Anna kept to their own devices.

As they put their books away in their bags, Giselle started a conversation. "Looking forward to tonight?" she asked in reference to the hockey game.

Anna shrugged. "Kinda, but I dunno…"

"You'll be fine," Ariel pitched in, "After all it is only the first game of the year, everyone's bound to be a little rusty."

"Yeah, but they've all played it for longer than I have," Anna said with a frown.

"You were good enough to get on the team, weren't you?" Giselle said, and Anna smiled for the first time that day.

"I guess so."

The three girls started to make their way out of the building and up to the grounds which were packed with chatty students. They sat down on one of the wooden benches, waiting for their other friends to arrive.

"What time is the game again?" asked Giselle as she checked her phone for texts.

"Five, at the turf," Anna told her.

"The school turf?" she asked, and Anna nodded.

They amused themselves with idle conversation, making plans for what they would do between the end of school and hockey. They decided that they would hang out at the café close by until 4.30, then make their way back to school for the game.

Shortly after their plans had been made, Rapunzel and Tiana arrived – but they had someone else with them. The girls recognised him as Flynn Rider, the guy everyone wanted to be friends with. Ariel had honestly thought that Flynn only reserved his friendship for year 12s and 13s, not people in the same year as him. Though she barely knew him, he could actually be a nice guy for all she knew.

"Hey guys," Tiana said as she sat down beside Ariel, "This is Flynn, he's in my economics class."

"You're acting like they don't already know me," he said with a cocky smile. That smile alone had already put Ariel off.

"Believe it or not, I have met people who have never heard of you," she said, and Ariel could've sworn she saw him pale a bit. What a show-off…

"Anyway," Tiana continued, "Flynn's on the hockey team as well, so I've invited him to hang out with us until the game. Cool?"

The rest of the group nodded, then they started to make their way down the hill to the nearby café – Deja Brew. The café was a hub for high school students, being right next to the hill that leads up to the school. The glass doors were always open during the summer, and the décor was vintage yet cool. Most of its employees came from the high school as well, and it was odd to see someone working there who you hadn't seen in the hallways a few hours earlier. It was because of this that it only opened around three, so it was almost exclusively for students. Not to mention they made the best coffee in town.

The six of them sat down at one of the picnic tables outside, each of them mulling over what they'd order. Most of them went for some kind of coffee apart from Rapunzel and Anna, who preferred the sweeter hot chocolates. Tiana went up to order the drinks, and the rest of them started up a conversation.

"So are any of you on the hockey team?" Flynn asked.

"I am," Anna said, raising her hand slightly.

"Huh. Are you new? Because I've never seen you before."

"I just arrived this year," Anna explained.

"Cool. What about you guys? Do you play any sports?" Flynn changed the subject from Anna, which Anna didn't seem to mind.

They chattered about their sports until Tiana came back with the drinks. From there they managed to entertain themselves as they waited for 4.30 to roll around. A few other people they knew came into the café, and they chatted with them until they had to move on. By the time 4.30 arrived, Anna was looking much more relaxed.

"We should probably get going," said Tiana, checking her phone.

They got up to go, then made their way up the hill back to the school. Some students were still wandering the grounds, but most were making their way to the turf. The group went in there as well, and when they arrived they said goodbye to Flynn and Anna when they headed off to the changing rooms. The girls found a bench and sat down.

They watched the two teams do their warm-ups, though when they were practicing with the ball it went awry and nearly hit Giselle square on the forehead. Fortunately, she had been looking through her bag at the time, so it soared right over her without her even noticing.

"It's nearly five, do you think they'll start the game soon?" asked Rapunzel.

"Probably, though I haven't seen Flynn or Anna come out yet," Ariel said, scanning the grounds for her friends.

As she looked she noticed a guy with dark hair rushing out of the changing rooms with Anna and Flynn in tow. She was about to tell her friends, but Giselle had already spotted them. But Ariel took more notice of the guy in front, his black hair waving in the slight breeze. She'd never seen him before, but from what she could see she rather liked the look of him. It looked as though Anna had got nervous again, and the dark haired guy was talking to her. Was he making her feel better? That meant he was probably a nice guy… He just got better.

Ariel leaned over to Tiana and asked, "Who's the guy with Anna?"

Tiana took a moment to search the turf, and when she spotted the two she started to explain.

"That's Eric Olsen, I think. Yeah, I think he's one of Charlotte's friends. He's a year 12 though," she said, and after thanking her Ariel turned her gaze back towards him.

He'd left Anna since she'd talked to Tiana and had taken his place on the field. The whistle blew and the game began, and though she was there for Anna, Ariel couldn't take her eyes off of Eric. She felt bad, but he was so… nice…

* * *

The next day, Ariel was looking forward to the privacy of interval. The night of the game Ariel had developed a crush on Eric, though he was way out of her league. She told her friends everything and vice versa, so it wasn't out of place for her to announce her latest crush. If she told her friends, she knew they'd do everything in their power to introduce him to her. They had done so for Rapunzel way back in year 9, though it turned out that the guy was a total slob.

When they were finally let out of maths, the girls rushed to their usual spot. The other day they'd found a bunch of year 9s sitting where they normally would, clearly not realizing how territorial the school was. Keen to avoid another incident like that, they always made sure to get to their spot quickly. It was petty, but it was life.

"Ok, so I have something to say," Giselle said as soon as they sat down.

"Oh yeah?" asked Rapunzel, who had a soft spot for gossip.

Giselle went bright red. "Well, y'know how we went to the hockey game last night?" she asked, and the group nodded, "Well, there was this guy there-"

Giselle was cut off by a chorus of ooing and ahhing. The first crush of the year was not a thing to be taken lightly.

"Who was it?" Anna asked eagerly, "I could set you two up!"

Ariel thought that if both she as Giselle had a crush on guys on the hockey team it wouldn't be so awkward. They could both muddle their way into the guy's life, and with Anna to help them it would be a breeze.

Giselle burst into a fit of giggles, clearly too embarrassed to say. But with a large amount of encouragement from her friends she finally calmed down.

"Ok… His name's Eric!"


	9. Chapter 9: February 29th

a/n. So, I really have no excuse for not updating for so long (well, I kinda do. It's called Singin' in the Rain and it may have taken over my life). I'm so sory for not updating in ages, so I though I slightly longer chapter might make up for it. I hope you enjoy it, and I'll try and update more frequently!

* * *

"Hey, Rapunzel?"

"Yeah?"

"Is it supposed to be doing that?"

Anna looked quizzically at the odd concoction that sat in the test tube, looking like a strange muddle between swamp water and mucus. She was sure the experiment called for a rainbow effect, not… that…

Rapunzel leaned in, scrunching her nose at it.

"Maybe. What does everyone else's look like?"

Anna glanced around the room. Rainbows. Everywhere. "Uhh… Nothing like ours?"

It was then that the foulest smell Anna had ever smelled came wafting from the test tube, making her want to gag, barf, and cry all at the same time. Rapunzel started to cough, waving the smell away from her face as best she could. Anna's cheeks flared as the other students started to whisper and stare. Science had never been her best subject, but she would've hoped she could at least pull off this experiment…

"Maybe you should tip it out?" suggested a blonde boy working at the bench next to them, covering his nose to protect it from the smell.

Anna nodded, "I think so too."

She hesitated to pick it up lest she spill it and make even more of a mess, but in the end, she grabbed it and tipped it down the sink as fast as possible. The smell still lingered on, though. Rapunzel sent her an encouraging smile, suggesting they try again. But after Anna looked at the clock and refused, they started to clean up long before any of the other groups.

* * *

Autumn seemed to be in a rush to arrive, as the once warm summer breezes had turned to cold harsh gusts. The tips of leaves were turning dry and brown, and a few droplets of rain were falling from the pale grey sky. Though the weather never got Anna down, if anything it made her excited for change. And the sooner autumn came, the sooner winter came, and the sooner winter came, the sooner the snow days would be. Though she did try to make the most of the summer despite her eagerness for the cold and frost.

"So, how's things with Eric?" asked Rapunzel, and Giselle blushed.

Since Giselle revealed her crush on Eric last Friday, Anna had been quick to act on it. She had messaged Eric on Facebook as soon as she got home with the intention of setting him up with Giselle. To her glee, it had worked, and Giselle and Eric had gone out on the weekend and had got along like a house on fire. Anna had always prided herself on her matchmaking skill, and that had just been the cherry on her romantic cake.

But none of those romances had involved her…

"Oh great! Nothing's really changed since Saturday, but look at this!" Giselle dug around in her pocket and pulled out her phone, and after a few taps and swipes, she found what she was looking for. Anna and Rapunzel looked in on her phone to find a text from Eric.

I had a good time on Saturday. Wanna do it again sometime?

Squealing ensued.

"Did you say yes?"

"Where do you think he wants to go?"

"Do you need to go shopping for a new outfit?"

"I wonder if he'll ask you out again…"

"Do you think he's got a friend? Or a brother?"

Giselle was bombarded with questions all the way to the art room, and it only stopped when the teacher had yelled at them about three times to be quiet. After that the three girls went on working on their projects, some going better than others. Rapunzel had been doing art forever, so she had no trouble. Giselle kept insisting that her mistakes were "part of the effect," but the whole truth was that they were quite terrible. Anna worked slowly – maybe a bit too slowly – but it was by no means bad. Slowly but surely they worked their way back into a conversation.

"What about you Anna? Is there a guy on the scene?" asked Rapunzel, adding the final touches on an acrylic tree.

Anna bit her lip. "Well, there is a guy I saw at production that was kinda cute…"

The eyes of her friends instantly lit up, and Giselle dropped her paint soaked sponge.

"Go on."

"There isn't much else to say," Anna shrugged, "I mean, he smiled at me-"

" **HE DID WHAT?** " Giselle practically screamed, causing some of the students to give her strange looks.

"He smiled at her, and lower your voice," Rapunzel scolded her.

"Describe him, I might know him."

Anna dipped her brush in some pale pink paint. "Well, he's a red head, he's tall-ish, and he always hangs out with that Aurora girl. Oh yeah, and his nose is really pointy."

"Red head… tall…" Giselle pondered, but Rapunzel spoke up before Giselle could.

"That sounds like Hans to me."

"Yeah! Hans, that's his name," Giselle nodded.

Anna fiddled with her braid, a habit she'd had since she was just a child. Twisting the hair around her finger was oddly therapeutic and often calmed her down, and more often than not she played with the side with the white streak. It was more interesting than her plain ginger one, that was all.

"He's certainly not bad," Rapunzel returned to her painting.

For the rest of the lesson Giselle seemed more focused on her friend's new crush than her painting, and Anna started to seriously worry about her friend's grade. It was almost like she was plotting something, and Anna hated to think what.

The bell rang some twenty minutes later, and as always, their art supplies took way too long to pack away. As Anna slid her paint pallet into her art locker she felt someone tap on her shoulder. She glanced over her shoulder to see Giselle, still looking as excited as when Anna revealed her crush.

"How would you feel if I…" she started, then collapsed into a fit of giggles.

Sometimes Giselle was a little too ditzy, even for Anna. "If you what?"

Regaining her composure, Giselle continued. "If I asked Hans out for you! I mean, you did the same for me, so I may as well return the favour while I can."

"Are you sure? This could just be a little crush, and it could always pass…"

"Stop it! Who cares if it doesn't go well? You can just dump him."

Anna hesitated, frowning. Was she really ready? I mean, sure she liked him, but she wasn't sure if she was ready to go on a date with him. What if he said no? She'd be mortified, and the fact that he was Aurora's right-hand man could mean the total destruction of her reputation. Not that she really had one to begin with, but you had to be careful.

On the plus side, if he said yes it meant total reputation enhancement. She'd be in with the cool crowd, she could go to all their parties and on all their nights on the town. She could get into any school activity she wanted, she'd be famous! But was that really what she wanted?

There was only one way to find out.

"So? Do you want me to ask him?"

Anna took one last second to think about it, then smiled. "Yes! Do it! Ask him now!"

"Now?"

"Yeah! Right now!"

As the two read heads squealed, Rapunzel simply looked on in confusion.

* * *

He said yes.

Waiting outside the library that afternoon was one of the tensest moments of Anna's life. All her friends were busy, so none of them could wait with her, and through research they discovered that Hans' last class was business, and the social science block was on the other side of the school. She had tried playing a game on her phone, but her hands were too shaky to play properly.

Yes, she had talked to him after Giselle had asked him out for her, and he seemed to like her. But you never know how much people can change over an hour or two.

"Hey, are you ready to go?"

Anna jumped when Hans unexpectedly came up behind her. Already it was off to a great start…

"Yeah, I'm ready." Her hand returned to her braid.

The two of them made their way outside, the usual after school student traffic had slowed down quite a bit since the bell had rung quite a while ago. As they walked down the hill together, Anna found it hard to strike up a conversation.

"Anywhere you wanna go?" asked Hans as some year nines pushed through them.

"I dunno, you know this place far better than I do. I thought you'd have some ideas," Anna replied, and instantly fretted over whether that was the right answer.

Hans took a moment to think. "We could try Deja Brew, but that's pretty busy this time of day… There could be somewhere in the mall…"

"The mall sounds great!" Anna said a bit took enthusiastically. Hans didn't seem to mind, though, and they started their trek towards the mall.

The mall wasn't terribly big. It had a few clothes shops, electronics departments, and fancy jewellers. But the best thing about it was the food court, which took up an entire floor. Despite it being so crowded at almost every hour of the day it was oddly more private than Deja Brew, as people were so occupied with their own affairs they didn't worry about other peoples. It was also less likely that you'd run into someone you knew, so there was that as well.

In the end, Anna and Hans decided on not getting anything to eat and just sit on the plushy seating situated near the entrance.

"Are you enjoying here?" Hans asked, and Anna nodded.

"Yeah, I really like it. It's _sooo_ much better than my old town," she replied.

"Oh yeah? Why's that?"

"Well, for starters it was huge. I'd lived there since I was born and I still got lost sometimes. I've pretty much memorised this places layout already. And my old school sucked, full of snobs…"

Anna went on nattering on about her old town, and Hans responded with suitable interest. The conversation veered into other areas after a while, and Anna found that they had more in common then they realised. They both were interested in joining the tennis team, they both loved winter and ice skating, and they shared a fondness for chocolate as well. He was pretty much perfect.

"Y'know, I didn't think this would go well," Anna said after a while.

"Really?" Hans seemed surprised.

"Considering I didn't even ask you out myself."

Hans laughed, "I thought that was kinda cute."

Anna started to giggle, and soon the two of them were in stitches together. The date carried on even later than Anna expected, with Hans deciding to take her out to a 50s themed diner named Felton's, which was just about the nicest place Anna had ever been to.

It was only until she got a call from Elsa that the date lost its momentum.

"Anna, where have you been?" Elsa's voice came from over the phone, sounding grumpier than usual.

"Out," Anna said nonchalantly, smiling at Hans as she did so.

"Anna don't be an idiot, tell me where you are and I'll come and get you. Mum and Dad have been worried sick."

"I did text them saying what I was doing," Anna retorted. She was having far too good a time to end it now.

"Look, just tell me where you are, please?"

Anna sighed. "Alright. I'm at Felton's, y'know, the diner on Kahl Street."

After more scolding from Elsa, Anna hung up.

"I guess that means you're going then," Hans said.

"Yeah, sorry about that, but you know how siblings are…" Anna brushed a lock of hair out of her face.

"Boy do I…"

"Oh?'

"How does twelve brothers sound to you?"

If Anna had a drink, she'd spit it out.

"Twelve? What the H?"

"It's kinda crazy, I know. And being the youngest isn't easy either," he said with a bitter laugh.

"And here I was thinking one older sibling was hard."

After a while, Anna's phone buzzed – Elsa had arrived.

"I guess I'd better go-"

As Anna started to pick up her bag Hans leaned in and kissed her. At first, her eyes went wide, then she closed them again, falling into the kiss. It was strangely tender for a couple who had only been on one date, but somehow that made it all the more enjoyable.

They broke apart, and Hans gave her one last smile. "Do you go out with me?"

Anna broke out into a goofy smile and nodded, barely even thinking about the consequences of dating a guy she'd only just met.


	10. Chapter 10: March 2nd

**DISNEY HIGH SCHOOL AU – CHAPTER 10 – MARCH 2** **ND**

Ever since Charlotte started dating Naveen, Tiana had noticed a change in her life. The biggest change was that she had more _time._

She was no longer scrambling to get her homework done the morning of the say it was due since Charlotte stopped calling her so frequently. She could hang out with her other friends rather than spend every waking second talking to Charlotte. Sometimes she actually got a quiet weekend to herself – now that was a novel feeling.

She couldn't help but feel slightly sorry for Naveen, no doubt Charlotte was sucking up all his time now. But if she had to deal with it since kindergarten then he could deal with it until Charlotte got bored. It was only fair.

She loved Charlotte like a sister, and would step in front of a car for her (and she hoped Charlotte would do the same for her), but she was very… _full on._

* * *

"Tiiii-AAAAA-naaaaa!"

Tiana raised her hands to her ears as a shrill screech erupted from behind her. Before she knew it a pair of arms wrapped around her and squeezed her tight, already babbling about this and that and the other thing. Of course, it was Charlotte. After gingerly ducking out of Charlotte's tight embrace she noticed Naveen behind them.

"Hey, guys-"

"What are you doing going outside Tiana? It's freeeeezing!" Charlotte interrupted and started dragging her towards the year 12 common room.

"Uh, Charlotte, I have a swim team meeting in the gym," she protested, looking to Naveen for help.

He just shrugged. _Gee, thanks…_

"Swim team, schwim team. Why hang out with them when you can spend time with me?"

Tiana just rolled her eyes. Looks like she had no choice but to miss the meeting, but she supposed that would be ok. It was just one meeting anyway.

The three of them arrived in the common room just before the other students came rushing in like a stampede of wilder beasts. All the good seats were open, so Charlotte dragged her friends over to the plushest couch she could find. Sinking into it, she sighed in content.

Tiana couldn't help but feel on edge when she was in the year 12 common room, what with her being a year 11. It was a taboo for someone from another year to sit in someone else's common room. Though no one seemed to notice when she was there. She supposed she was just tall for her age.

"So, what's everyone up to this weekend?" asked Naveen in a desperate bid for decent conversation.

"I've got a maths internal coming up, I thought I might just go to the library to study," said Tiana, digging around in her bag for her lunch.

"I'm not busy if you're not busy," Charlotte batted her eyelids at her boyfriend, who gave her a half-hearted smile in return.

"How about you?" asked Tiana.

"I've got nothing planned-"

"There's this cool new restaurant opening this Saturday, wanna come check it out?" Charlotte interrupted for the second time that lunch break (and who knew how many times that day.)

"Uh, actually study sounds good. I've got a music thing coming up, so wanna meet up sometime?" Naveen ventured, and Tiana had to admit – she wasn't expecting him to forego a date with Charlotte for her.

Charlotte paused for a moment, looking as though she'd just seen a cat hit by a bus. Even the colour had drained from her face, which was admittedly hard to notice due to her heavy makeup. She started looking for something to say, but her mouth just opened and shut like a fish.

She turned to face Tiana, and now she'd abandoned her pale tone for a bright red pallor. Charlotte was _mad._

"Tiana," she said in an incredibly passive aggressive tone, "Can I talk to you?" she shot a glare at Naveen _"Alone?"_

Naveen glanced over at Tiana with a look of confusion, and Tiana replied with a look of exasperation.

"Sure, Charlotte. How about we go to the bathroom?" Tiana suggested.

Charlotte gave a short but sharp nod then grabbed onto Tiana's wrist with an iron vice grip and thundered her way down the hall. Tiana couldn't help but notice the confused gazes of the year 9 onlookers, and the bitchy year 10s gossiping about how 'crazy' the year 11s were. It was a little embarrassing, but she'd gone through worse.

Charlotte stepped into the nearest bathroom and scared the living daylights out of the other girls already in there by yelling in her loudest, most commanding tone, "GET OUT!"

They obeyed.

Tiana stepped in and Charlotte slammed the door behind her. She whirled around to face Tiana, and she could've sworn smoke was coming out of Charlotte's ears.

"What's the big idea?" she shrieked.

"I don't know, you're the one who dragged me in here," Tiana protested, edging towards the door lest she needed to make a quick escape.

"Oh I think you know perfectly well what I'm talking about," Charlotte took a step towards her and Tiana took a step backwards.

"Y'know, I really don-"

"YES YOU DO! That whole thing with Naveen back there!"

"What thing?" Tiana was just confused now. Yes, Naveen had said he'd rather study with her then go to dinner with Charlotte, but what was less romantic than studying? In public?

"You knew he'd want to hang out with you and not me! You want to steal him from me!" Oh god, was she _crying_?

Tiana raised her hands in surrender, "I would've rather studied alone, Charlotte, I'll just tell him I don't want to hang out with him."

"Yeah, and then invite him again behind my back…"

Oh god, she was crying… She got emotional over the most trivial things. When something didn't go her way there was always someone behind it, no matter what it was. She couldn't go to the year 8 social because she was sick, but no, one of the other girls had slipped something in her food. There was no such thing as minor inconveniences in Charlotte's world, the freaking prime minister had to be called if the heel broke off of her shoe.

And you know what? It kind of pissed Tiana off.

So as Charlotte bombarded her with question after stupid question, it was Tiana's turn to snap.

"Look, Charlotte, would you just shut up? Because frankly I am sick and tired of your so called issues. So what if Naveen doesn't want to go on a date with you? He has wants too! The world doesn't revolve around you, did that thought ever occur to you? Or was your skull too thick to get the message? Y'know, I could be getting somewhere with my life if it weren't for you, because the moment I want to do something that doesn't involve you it's all "boohoo Tiana, you never want to spend time with me!" but when you want to do something it's all fine and dandy, no problems there. So y'know what Charlotte? Screw you."

The moment she uttered the last word, she started to regret every letter of it.

At first, Charlotte was stunned into silence, eyes wide, mouth open. She was shaking slightly, face pale, completely still. Then her lip started to wobble, and she started to sniff, the tears started falling. She rubbed her hand over her watery eyes, leaving a streak of black and pink makeup on her sleeve and across the side of her face.

"I…" she stuttered, then sprinted out of the bathroom and down the hall, leaving Tiana by herself.

She poked her head out the door to watch her go. She saw Naveen coming up the corridor, but he stopped when he saw Charlotte hurtling towards him. He caught her and said something to her, but Charlotte shoved him away and yelled something like "It's over," but Tiana couldn't really hear it properly. She pushed him aside and ran out of sight.

Tiana stepped out of the bathroom, feeling all kinds of terrible feelings. How could she say all those things to her? Yes, it was all true, she did feel that way. But how could she say it to her face? Especially when she was so upset already… Thinking about the whole thing just made her stomach curdle. Naveen approached her, looking puzzled.

"What happened in there? 'Cause I think she just dumped me," he asked, and Tiana fell back against the wall and slid down to the floor.

Naveen widened his eyes in concern and knelt down to her level.

"Did you guys have a fight?" he asked, and Tiana nodded, "And was it really that bad?" Another nod.

Naveen sat down beside her and ran his hand through his hair, "God…"

"I said so many horrible things," Tiana murmured, the image of Charlotte's heartbroken face dancing in her brain.

In a vain attempt to cheer her up, Naveen gave her a warm smile. "So, are we still on for this weekend?"

Tiana gave him a look of disgust and stood up to leave, walking through the hall as fast as she could. She heard Naveen calling after her, but she just ignored him. He didn't deserve her time of day anyway.

When she started to feel tears forming in her own eyes, she ducked into the nearest empty classroom, made her way to the back of the room, and bawled her heart out.

 **a/n: This chapter was fun to write... How about that friendship drama? Anyway, since the trailer for Moana was just released (and was amazing) I thought I might just address it. Since Moana is going to be a Disney princess, I will include her in this fic when the movie comes out, as well as any love interest she has in it (maybe even Maui if there isn't a love interest). But I've done the most solid planning for terms 1 and 2, I'll probably introduce her in term 3 depending on how things turn out. Anyway, thank you for reading this update! I hope you all enjoyed it :)**


	11. Chapter 11: March 3rd - 4th

Sometimes it was difficult for Henri to keep up with his friends, but having over achievers for friends would do that.

There was Snow and Florian, who were not only incredible in pretty much every subject they took, but they were the most famous couple in school. Not to mention that they were head and deputy head prefect, and with all the extracurriculars they took it was a surprise that they could find time for themselves and their friends. Which (somehow) they managed to do.

Newcomer Phillip seemed less talented than the others, but he soon proved himself to be like a modern day Fred Astaire. Henri could easily see him becoming like his increasingly busy girlfriend, Cinderella.

The girlfriend in question was almost always busy with some kind of drama event or another, and if not that the orchestra had to perform somewhere. Despite the fact that the two of them were dating he felt like he saw less and less of her every day, which was certainly _not_ what their relationship should be like.

So it was easy for Henri – an underachiever who never showed up to his sports practices – to feel a bit behind. Sometimes he wondered how he even ended up with that crowd, but then he remembered almost as soon as he forgot. His ridiculously attractive face.

Half the reason he had any leverage in the social system of the school was because of his perfectly formed visage. He considered it both a blessing and a curse. A blessing because who wouldn't want to be good looking? And a curse because that was all people seemed to care about.

He was sure that Cinderella cared for more than just his looks, no, that wasn't the problem. The lack of time that she spent with him was the problem. He wanted someone who would rather spend time with him rather than a bloody flute. She was a nice girl, and they'd dated for almost as long as Florian and Snow had. But he couldn't help but want something… new…

But God knows when he'd get the courage to break up with her.

* * *

Henri trudged towards the gym, the cold wind blowing leaves straight into his face. Hands shoved into his pockets, he braced himself for yet another outdoor PE session. Like anyone needed that – Florian had already been struck down with a cold because of it.

As he walked by a gaggle of year 12s huddled together like penguins, Henri couldn't help but overhear their conversation.

"Did you hear that Charlotte broke it off with Naveen?"

"Yeah, I can't believe it! She never takes her eyes off of him in English…"

"I heard it was Tiana's fault."

"What? That little year 11?"

Henri had heard of Charlotte through Phillip's exasperated stories. What he'd gathered from them was that she was chatty, clingy, slightly crazy, and would cancel anything for a date. Sounded like she was just what Henri needed…

Henri paused, deciding it might be a good idea to return to that conversation. He pulled out his phone and pretended to flick through it, keeping an ear out for any useful information.

"I bet she'll want to lay off dating for a while."

"Nah, she desperate to find someone else. You know her, can't be single for a day without a new guy."

"I wonder who she'll go for?"

"Hey, wanna make a bet?"

So she was looking for a new guy, and Henri was looking for a new girl. Well, he had to break up with Cinderella first, but that could wait. He knew what Charlotte looked like, blonde bob, short, a little round, and always in pink. The kind of girl that was easy to spot in a crowd. She seemed like the kind of girl who would fall for a guy like him… This would be easy.

He just had to get through PE first, which was easier said than done…

* * *

He found Charlotte during the lunch hour of the next day when she was touching up her makeup in the small mirror that hung in her locker. Henri felt a brief pang of guilt when he thought about Cinderella – he couldn't cheat on her. That would break her heart!

But she'd neglected him. Yes, he understood that she had lots of stuff going on and she couldn't help it, but she barely even texted or called him anymore.

Putting the thought of Cinderella out of his head, he approached Charlotte's locker.

"Hey," he said, and Charlotte looked up from her mirror. When she saw who it was, she instantly slammed her locker shut.

"Hey Henri, watcha up to?" she leaned against the lockers.

"Not much now, not much after school. Are you busy?" he mimicked Charlotte's stance.

The hall was empty aside from them, there was no way he could get caught, and Cinderella had orchestra practice on Friday. He was safe.

"If you aren't, charmin'," she gave a coy smile.

"Wanna meet by my car? I'll take you somewhere nice," he leaned in, and Charlotte giggled.

"And where might that be?"

"Wherever you want."

Charlotte batted her eyelashes. "It's a date."

Henri smiled, and she smiled back. Their romantic moment was interrupted by a teacher sticking their head out of a classroom and yelling: "It's an outside lunch you know!"

"Guess I'll meet you by your car then," Charlotte said with a lowered voice, then sauntered away down the corridors.

Henri watched her go, an odd feeling of guilt and excitement mixing in his gut. He thought the process of asking her out had gone well – she certainly seemed interested. But then how would he face Cinderella afterward?

A thought suddenly dawned on him. Did Charlotte not know he was in a relationship? Or did she just ignore it because she was desperate after her breakup? Did she know and just forget?

Henri let the thought slip from his mind as he wandered down the corridor, his mind occupied with dating strategies. Or rather, how-to-not-get-caught-cheating strategies. Only time would tell how it would end up, though he wasn't sure he was prepared if Cinderella caught him with Charlotte.

Or maybe she'd just be too busy to notice…

* * *

Charlotte flopped onto her fluffy, plush, ginormous pink bed, her stomach doing backflips inside her. She'd just been on a date with the hottest guy in school, and the best part about it was that _he'd_ asked her! Not the other way around, which it often was.

The date itself wasn't anything to rave about. They'd hung out in town, gone out to dinner (which he'd paid for), went for a moonlit walk in the park, and then he'd driven her home. Not much different from any old date with Naveen.

Naveen… He'd be so jealous! He'd dump Tiana as soon as he heard they'd gone out and come crawling right back! She wouldn't take him back, though, not when she had Henri Renou as her date!

Charlotte grabbed onto one of her overstuffed heart shaped pillows and hugged it tight to her chest, squeezing her eyes shut and giggling to herself. After reopening her eyes she gazed over and her bright pink phone.

Smiling, she discarded the pillow and grabbed her phone, tapping in the password and leaning against her larger, lacy pillows. She went straight into the Facebook app and instantly started tapping out a post.

 _Just had the BEST date with Henri Renou! Wanna do it again charmin'? ;)_

 **a/n: thumbs up for Fred Astaire!**


	12. Chapter 12: March 6th - 7th

By the time she'd watched the seventeenth audition tape for the school production, Snow was just about done. Though she'd never say it aloud for the sake of their feelings – these kids just couldn't act! There were some exceptions, but Snow was too tired to even think about those ones. So as a remedy to her boredom, she logged onto Facebook in the hopes of someone she knew being online and willing to chat.

No one seemed to be on – no one she knew anyway. Sighing, she started to scroll through her feed. She hadn't been on in a couple of days, and though she was embarrassed to admit it, it was one of her favourite pastimes.

There was something about the endless gossip written there that satisfied her hunger for petty drama that her good girl image wouldn't allow. Yes, goodie two shoes, excellence student Snow White loved drama. But who didn't?

After ten minutes of scrolling and clicking on random pointless quizzes, a message popped up on the corner of her screen.

 **CINDY:** Hey! Watcha up to?

 **SNOW:** Watching audition tapes. Ugh! You?

 **CINDY:** Not much. What are the tapes like?

 **SNOW:** ALL THE SAME!

As Snow continued scrolling, Cinderella managed to get a lot off of her chest in their chat. She'd been left at home with her step-sisters while her step-mother was off in Europe with husband number four, and as usual, her step-sisters had ordered her around nonstop.

It wasn't unusual for Cindy to rant to someone about her horrible, housebound weekends. Snow, Florian, and Henri had decided they'd take turns each week to be ranted at. Most of the time they just let her talk until she'd got it out of her system, and then replied with a comment that they guessed was suitable.

Her complaints were so similar every time, so they usually worked. Though the one time Florian replied with "That's terrible" the one time Cindy had had a good weekend had quite an interesting turnout.

Since then they'd learned to skim read her rants well enough to gauge the situation. Just as well Florian had learnt their lesson for them…

 **SNOW:** That seriously sucks

 **CINDY:** IKR! I mean, can't Anastasia do her own laundry? She's going to university for God's sake!

 **SNOW:** Some people never learn

 **CINDY:** But OMG you'll never believe how horrible Drizella's new GF is…

Snow's gaze was drawn from the chat when a post caught her eye. As she glanced over the contents, her chocolate brown eyes widened. She had to read it several times before she could really take it in, and she raised her well-manicured hand to her mouth and gasped.

 _Just had the BEST date with Henri Renou! Wanna do it again charmin'? ;)_

Posted by Charlotte Lebouf! What was Henri doing going around with Charlotte Labouf? She'd always thought he was such a faithful, nice guy. Not the kind of guy who would go around with Charlotte Lebouf of all people!

Snow bit her lip. What was she supposed to do now? Tell Cindy? But she couldn't do that to her… She'd never been the bringer of bad news, and this news was really _really_ bad. But wouldn't it be the better thing to do? She couldn't imagine herself standing idly by when she knew Henri was cheating on her…

Maybe she would just wait and hope Cindy would see the post herself? A lot of people had commented on it… Maybe she would hear about it through the grapevine?

Snow tapped her nails on her laptop. Normally she'd go to Florian for help in this kind of situation, he had a mind for these sort of things. But he was offline, and she didn't want to bother him when he was sick…

Phillip was always on option, but she wasn't sure how good he was at decision making. Or keeping secrets for that matter. She decided she didn't want to risk it by telling him, and then she was back at square one.

As she mulled over her dilemma, she didn't notice a bubble of text appearing in the corner of her screen.

 **CINDY:** Snow… Did you know about Charlotte Lebouf?

Snow had no idea what to reply with. She'd only just found out, so maybe she could play it safe and pretend she didn't know?

 **SNOW:** No? Why? What happened?

It took her a while to reply.

 **CINDY:** I have to go

The little chat screen disappeared. Snow hated to think of what would happen between them tomorrow. They could fight… Physically! Snow quite out of the internet and shut her laptop. Sitting cross-legged on her bed, she had a feeling that tomorrow would not go well at all…

* * *

When Henri arrived at school the next day, he didn't expect to be greeted by a red-faced Cinderella. She looked mad. _Really_ mad.

Oh God… Did she find out about Friday?

Cinderella walked forward, leaving Snow and Phillip watching from afar. Phillip looked confused, but Snow looked like she knew exactly what was going on. Had Snow seen him with Charlotte? Had she ratted him out? He braced himself.

"Hi there, _charmin'_ ," Cinderella sneered.

"It's really not-"

"So you openly admit it? That's manly of you." Cinderella got closer. "Would you care to explain yourself? What does that tart have that I don't?"

"First of all, she isn't a tart-"

"Then why does she act so much like one?"

"You want an explanation? So let me for God's sake! There's a perfectly good reason, actually, to why I had a better time with Charlotte than I ever had with you."

Cinderella looked hurt after that. Maybe that was a good thing? After all, what he had said wasn't a lie…

"A-and what would that be?" Cinderella stuttered.

"She actually has time for me, unlike you who'd rather hang out with her flute than with me. She listens to me while you're too busy talking about your stupid drama things with Snow!" He hadn't meant to drag Snow into this, but then it was possible that she'd ratted him out…

"Henri! It's not that I don't want to spend time with you! I love hanging out with you, but I'm just-"

"Too busy, yeah, I've heard it before. We haven't spent any time together in what, two weeks? We're practically single!" Henri retorted, and Cinderella's face turned a deeper shade of red.

"Well, I'm sorry I have passions! I'm sorry I want to pursue them and take every opportunity I can with them! At least I don't get an achieved on pretty much every internal I do!" Cinderella stalked towards him, backing him against a wall.

"Everyone thinks you're an overachieving snob! The teacher's pet!" Henri yelled.

"You couldn't get anywhere in your life if you tried!" Cinderella yelled right back.

Though Cinderella was throwing some low blows, Henri was enjoying it. Though he'd never realised it, he'd always wanted to do this.

"Better an underachiever than a try hard!"

It was after this that Snow stepped in.

"Guys! Calm down!" she pulled Cinderella away from him and kept a hold on her arm so she didn't go back to him.

"It's over, Henri," Cinderella snarled, and to be honest, Henri wasn't surprised at the outcome.

The blonde stormed off, with Snow and Phillip soon following. With a sigh, Henri dusted himself off and turned towards his first class. But as soon as he turned around he saw Charlotte, looking shocked – but not in a good way.

"You mean…" she whispered, "You already had a girlfriend?"

Henri went to say something to her, but before he could Charlotte had disappeared into the throngs of other students. Henri sighed as he watched her go.

He guessed all three of them were single now.

 **a/n. Well that was another fun chapter to write. Anyway, I have an announcment! I want to start a new story, but there's a slight problem of not knowing what to do. I have three ideas, and I want to write them all, but I only want to write three at a time. Since I already have this AU going and the Fan Fic 100 challenge, That only leaves room for one. So I've decided to let you decide! I've created a straw poll for you to vote on. The description of each story is on my profile description, so make sure to read about them before you vote!**

 **Since this website is stupid and won't let me post the link, I'll just give you instructions. Write www. then strawpoll then .me then the numbers** **/10661832. That should take you to the poll! (sorry for the crappiness of the instructions. just trying to get around this website cutting out parts of the link!)**


	13. Chapter 13: March 8th

Gaston was bored.

When he first started dating Aurora, he expected it to be more… physical. But it turned out that Aurora wanted him for the status – and nothing but the status. She barely talked to him unless it was 100% necessary. To be honest he didn't really like her. He was in it for the status and, of course, the sex.

But that was the problem. There wasn't any.

So as Aurora sat there examining her long, bright pink nails, Gaston tried to get something out of her for what felt like the five billionth time.

"Hey babe," he started. She glanced up at him, and he continued. "You busy tonight?"

Aurora turned her gaze back to her phone. "Uh, yeah. I've got a salon date with Jasmine. Have I not made that obvious enough?"

That was as far as the conversation went. Compared to their others it was rather lengthy, and Aurora actually responded with full sentences this time. He didn't bother to press it because if he asked if they could hang out after that she'd suddenly have some coffee date with Hans or something.

It was after leaning back against the large, gnarled oak tree they were sitting by that he noticed her. There was a girl walking along the courts clutching a billion books close to her chest. Her long brown hair fell down her back in a loose braid, and her green dress was halfway down her calf.

There was no doubt about it – she was a virgin, and no one stole people's virginity like Gaston.

The lack of friends walking with her was a clear sign that she had none, and almost all of his most successful sexual conquests came from desperate losers. She was a bona fide desperate loser, an easy target.

"Gotta go, babe," he said, to which Aurora described with a grunt and a brief wave.

Predictable… Gaston stood up and slung his ratty bag over his shoulder and trudged his way over to the girl, brushing shoulders with several other students as he went. He noticed the girl had stopped by the damp brick wall of the main building to put her books away. He turned to walk to the building.

This seemed like a job for the nice guy tactic. Saunter up to her, hope she hadn't learnt about his reputation, and be a veritable saint until he could get into her pants. There was nothing to it, and it was by far his most successful tactic.

He finally met up with her, leaning against the brick wall. She looked up at him, and she was more beautiful than he expected. She had almond shaped eyes with pale brown irises, full lips, and a round face. Score!

"Hey, name's Gaston. Would you happen to know where the library is?" he asked, figuring the amount of books she was carrying meant the library was a good place to start. At first, the girl looked puzzled, but she soon smiled up at him.

"It's really close. Through that door, then the first door to your left," she told him, then bent down to put her books back in her bag.

"Really? That is close. You look like you were heading there yourself."

The girl shook her head. "No. These are from the public library." She glanced up at him. "I'm Belle, by the way."

"Nice to meet you, Belle." He was pretty sure nice guys said stuff like that. He couldn't let the conversation end there, though, he needed to secure her for the night.

When Belle saw that he wasn't leaving, she stood up. "Is there anything else I can help you with?"

Gaston tried looking nervous. "I'm kinda new here. I was wondering if you wanted to show me around after school maybe."

Belle perked up. "Oh, sure! I mean, there's not much to see, but sure. I can show you around."

"Wanna meet at the front gates?" he suggested, but Belle shook her head.

"The library, I think. It'll be quieter there." Sheesh. Did she want to do it in the library?

"Sure," he replied, and as soon as he did the bell rang.

Belle picked up her bag and smiled. "I'd better get to class. See you at the library!"

She turned and dashed up the stairs, bag bouncing on her back. He was lucky she didn't know about his reputation because it certainly wasn't a good one. He'd shagged pretty much every girl in his year, and a good half of year 12. As long as she didn't hear anything between now and 3.20 he'd be golden.

* * *

Belle was almost skipping along the corridor, which was earning her a few odd gazes here and there, but she didn't mind. A guy had pretty much asked her out! The whole time she'd been at this school no one had ever shown any interest in her, let alone a guy like _that_!

As she turned the corner to get to class, she heard someone call her name.

"Hey, Belle!"

Belle turned around to spot Ariel jogging over to her, bright red hair bouncing behind her. She knew Ariel, and they were on good terms with each other, but she'd never specifically wanted to talk to her. So what was going on? Was she throwing a party or something? No… The chances of her every getting invited to a party was next to nothing, whether someone she knew was throwing the party or not. Ariel finally caught up to her.

"Yeah? What's up?" Belle leaned against the wall.

"I saw you talking to Gaston just before," she said, sounding slightly puffed.

"You know him?" Belle asked, "I thought he was new…"

Ariel looked a little surprised. "You've never seen him before? He's been here since our first year."

Oh dear… Of course, something had to go wrong. Nothing good ever happened to Belle without something bad happen. Next thing you know Ariel would be telling her he already had a girlfriend…

"Has he? I never noticed…"

"Well, that's not the point. The point is that he's kind of… already in a relationship. And he kind of… sleeps around… a _lot_."

Belle's face fell. "Oh…"

"Sorry Belle," said Ariel, and it looked like she meant it. "I just wanted you to be safe. He's a bit… y'know…"

Belle looked at Ariel quizzically. "A bit what?"

Ariel frowned, then gestured for Belle to lean in closer. Belle did as she was told, and Ariel whispered in her ear.

"He's a bit rapey…"

Belle's eyes went wide and she leaned away from Ariel so quick she bumped her head on the wall. Gaston? A rapist? But he seemed so nice… Why would he trick her like that?

Seeing Belle's disappointment, Ariel bit her lip. "Sorry, I just thought you should know before you got too serious."

"I guess it is for the best…" Belle sighed, then looked up at Ariel. "Thanks, though."

Ariel gave her a smile. "No problem." She checked her phone and her eyes went wide. "Crap! I gotta get to class. See you tomorrow!"

Belle watched as Ariel bounded down the hall and sighed. She supposed she should be grateful. Ariel did just save for from a potential life ruining mistake, but in a way she was sad. Gaston had been the first guy to show her any interest, even if he was just faking it to get in her pants. It would've been nice if it had been for real…

* * *

Belle made sure to avoid the library for the first time in her life. She didn't want a run in with Gaston to ruin her day more than it already had been. She decided that the best way to leave school would be out the back by the gym – she couldn't afford being spotted by Gaston out the library windows. Though she hated to think how he'd react tomorrow when he realised she'd stood him up…

Maybe she could pretend to be sick tomorrow?

As she walked along the leaf-covered path, she heard the footsteps of someone behind her. They were heavy – definitely a guy. She panicked for a moment. It could be Gaston…

She briefly glanced behind her to see who it was. Who she saw wasn't Gaston, but Adam, who she'd only seen in debate meetings, never outside of them. He hadn't seemed to notice her stop, he was too engrossed in his book. Still _Jane Eyre_ , she noticed.

"Hey Adam," she said, waving to him.

Fortunately, he looked up in time before he collided into her, but he just looked at her like she had three heads.

"It's me, Belle. From debate."

He returned to his book. "I know."

"Where are you headed? Can I walk with you?" Belle asked, but he didn't reply.

She took that as a no but still walked with him anyway. They walked in silence for a while, Adam still reading and Belle mulling over conversation topics. She decided the one thing they seemed to have in common would do the trick.

"I'm reading _Gone with the Wind_ at the moment. It's really good, more exciting than _Jane Eyre._ You might like it," she said, then waited in anticipation for him to respond.

He didn't, but Belle refused to give up. She needed something to keep her mind off Gaston…

"If that book really is for school I can help you with your essay, if you like," Belle offered. That got a reaction, but it wasn't a good one.

"What do you think I am, dumb or something? I don't need your help. Leave me alone."

Adam picked up his pace after that, slamming the book shut and clutching it so hard his knuckles went white. Belle watched him go, pursing her lips in frustration. She started back down the path, brown leaves rustling as she did so. Her conversation had done the trick, it had taken her mind off Gaston. Instead, she was left thinking about Adam for the rest of the day.

She just hoped to God he wasn't a brute as well…

 **a/n. The first part of this chapter made me feel dirty... Anywho, time for the result of the poll! And, with a whopping two votes on the entire thing, the result is the Disney rewrite! Thank you for those two people who voted, you get cats and muffins 3**


	14. Chapter 14: March 10th - 11th

For such a small crowd it could really make a lot of noise…

Elsa gazed up at the group of fellow students huddled together on the stands, cheering on their friends. She glanced over at the hockey team on the field, all high fives and enthusiasm. She only wished she could be a part of it.

Elsa was on the hockey team, and despite the fact that she was the most dedicated player on the team (she was the only member to show up to every single practice), when it came to game time it was like she was just part of the crowd. Even her own sister was constantly leaving her out!

But she didn't blame Anna, not really. For whatever reason being friends with Elsa was social suicide. She really didn't know why. She'd never done anything wrong… Anna just wanted to fit in, and the previous fact coupled with them being sisters… Being friends with your siblings was even worse.

Elsa had never really understood this school's social system.

Fortunately for her, there was one person who risked being friends with her – and apparently no one else. Adam was a year below her, but he still made an effort to reach out to her. They were both outcasts, and they soon became fast friends. She hated to admit it, but she'd got a bit of a crush on him. It was nothing serious, just idle dreams of overthrowing the socialites.

She thought Adam being on the team would help her get on the field some more, but why would they listen to him? He was as bad as her.

By the time the referee called halftime, Elsa decided that there was no point in staying. No one would mind if she left. Heck, they hadn't even noticed her show up. So with a sigh, Elsa slipped into the changing rooms to take off her gear.

What she didn't expect was there to be another girl there.

"Uh, hi," she murmured, but the girl didn't hear her.

She was pretty, and Elsa had seen her around before. She always wore her chestnut hair in a low ponytail, always had a book, and was always alone. Another outcast? She was adjusting her hair in the mirror – was she trying to impress someone? Meeting a boy? Elsa decided to pack up quietly so as to not disturb her.

She made her way over to her bag – the only one in the room save for Anna's. Suddenly, the girl shrieked and whirled around, hand on her chest.

"I'm so sorry," the girl smiled. "I didn't hear you come in."

"That's alright." Elsa went back to taking off her gear.

The girl cocked her head. "Is the game over already?" she looked concerned.

"No, I'm just leaving early," Elsa told her.

The girl frowned and made her way over to her. She sat down beside Elsa, and Elsa couldn't help but wonder why. Why was she not avoiding her? Did she not care about her social status? Did she even _have_ a social status?

"Why? If you don't mind me asking. Oh, I'm Belle by the way."

"Elsa. I figured there wasn't much point in staying," Elsa explained.

"Do you not like the game?"

"Oh no." Elsa shook her head and sat down. "The game doesn't like me."

Belle opened her mouth to say something but then bit her lip. Elsa glanced up at her and sighed. "Just say it. It's probably nothing I haven't heard before."

Belle still looked reluctant. Elsa shot her an impatient look, and she gave in.

"I was just going to ask if you weren't that good at it…" She looked down sheepishly.

Elsa shook her head. "No, I'm fine at the game. The team just doesn't give me a chance."

"They leave you out?"

Elsa nodded. Belle frowned, tapping her nails on the plastic bench. She clearly didn't know what to say, but from the look on her face, she was searching for something reassuring or encouraging. Elsa's downer attitude often stopped a conversation in its tracks – maybe that was the problem? Though if everyone hadn't treated her like trash she wouldn't be a downer…

There was no choice but to change the conversation.

"So, uh, what are you doing here?" Elsa asked, and Belle looked glad at the change of topic.

"I'm meeting a guy," she said, and after seeing Elsa raise one eyebrow she rushed to correct herself. "Well, not for a date. I don't even think he knows I'm coming… It's just that he doesn't have many friends and I thought if I came and supported him it would cheer him up a bit."

Elsa chuckled. "Let me guess. His names Adam and his vocabulary consists of nothing but grunts?"

"You know him? He let you talk to him?" Belle looked shocked.

Ever since Elsa had convinced him to try out the debate team, Adam had started complaining about a nosy little junior who wouldn't leave him alone. Belle must be the nosy little junior, though Elsa thought she looked more like a year 11.

"Yeah, I'm the only one. You're talking to his one and only friend," Elsa said.

"Gosh, that sucks…" Belle sighed.

"What, that I'm his only friend?"

Belle looked hesitant, and Elsa rolled her eyes. "Don't worry, I'm used to it."

The faint sound of a whistle blowing sounded from outside and was followed by yelling and cheering. Half time must have finished. Belle stood up.

"I should probably go and watch the game, see how he's doing." She made her way towards the door and Elsa went back to packing up her gear. She didn't hear the door opening, so she turned to see if Belle had left – and she hadn't.

Belle turned to face Elsa. "Before I go, do you have any… I don't know… tips or something? For Adam?"

Elsa sighed. "Just come sit with us at interval tomorrow. We'll be by the science block."

Belle gave her a grateful smile, and after bidding her farewell she dashed out the door. Elsa started to get her regular clothes from her bag, glad for the silence.

As she pulled her hockey shirt over her head, it dawned on her that someone had actually willingly talked to her. Her conversation with Belle was genuine enough so it couldn't be a prank, and she seemed truly interested in getting to know Adam… She dared to admit that she may have just made a friend.

Elsa decided that she didn't care about the tantrum that Adam would have for letting the nosy junior sit with them. She wanted more than one friend, and with God as her witness, she was going to get one!

* * *

The two periods before interval seemed like an age. Elsa was more excited for Belle to sit with them than she probably should be. Not only was she looking forward to Adam's reaction (she's neglected to tell him about it), but someone new was going to sit with her. Willingly!

It was the fact that Belle actually wanted to that made it so wonderful.

Elsa was ready to leave class before the bell had even gone, and by the time it did she was halfway out of the class. She dashed up the stairs and out onto the stone courts, then walked the short distance to their usual bench outside the science block. She discovered that she was the first one to arrive, and was disappointed at the aspect of more waiting.

Luckily, Adam arrived not long after she did.

"Hey," he grunted, dumping his bag on the ground and collapsing onto the bench.

"Hi. Anything interesting happen today?" she asked.

"Nah. Just some stupid relationship drama or something."

Elsa wanted to know more (she was a sucker for romance), but she knew better than to ask. Adam was hardly a good source of information for these sorts of things.

Out of the corner of her eye, she spied Belle leaving the main building and looking around. Elsa gave a brief wave and Belle spotted her.

"Hey Adam," she said, and the younger boy looked up with disinterest. "I've invited someone to sit with us today." His disinterest turned into dismay, and then to disgust when he saw it was Belle.

"Hiya!" she chirped, setting her books down on the table.

Adam groaned, turning his gaze to the dull grey wall of the science block. Belle launched into a story about how lazy and useless her English class were in period one, and Elsa listened with avid interest. Shortly afterwards, she unsuccessfully tried to engage Adam in conversation.

"What did you have last? Anything interesting?" she asked, but Adam answered in a characteristic grunt.

"He had maths," Elsa answered for him.

"Oh… Fun!" Belle smiled.

"You think that maths is fun?" Adam asked in disbelief.

"Yeah! Not as good as English, but it's great when you know how to do it."

Elsa watched with surprise as the two of them held an entire conversation. Even she'd struggled to get a full sentence out of him. But Belle – a girl he apparently hated – was getting not just a conversation, but an _argument!_

Elsa had been wary that she'd made the wrong decision in inviting Belle to sit with them, but now she was sure it was one of the best decisions she'd ever made.


	15. Chapter 15: March 11th

The performing arts centre was packed. Tonnes of students from all the year levels had tried their hand at auditioning for the school's production of Shakespeare's _Much ado about nothing_ , but parts were limited. There were only 15 parts to be won, and at least 50 students had auditioned. Snow had never thought that the school was so enthusiastic about drama… Last year only 10 kids showed up, and the production was a disaster as a result. Was there something about Shakespeare that excited people?

Snow held the cast list in her pale hand, bright red nails glistening under the lights. Though Snow had looked over the audition tapes herself, she had sent them to the school's drama teacher to decide who got parts. Snow hadn't looked at the list yet, so even she was in the dark.

"I think everyone's here," Florian told her, and Snow nodded. As she cleared her throat to get everyone's attention, Florian jogged back to his seat.

Satisfied that all eyes were on her, Snow began. "Hi, everyone! I know you've all been waiting patiently for this day, so I won't dawdle. But I just want to let you know that even if you don't get a part you'll be used as extras, so you'll still be part of the play!"

A few people groaned and Snow cringed. Maybe she shouldn't have said that…

"Uh, anyway, let's get on with it!" She ripped into the envelope, pulling out the crisp sheet of paper inside. "Oh, and when I call your name, could you please come up onto the stage? Alright, the role of Beatrice goes to… Oh! It goes to me!"

A few people cheered, some clapped, and a few groaned. They may not have caught on that Snow didn't choose the roles herself… She particularly noticed Aurora scowling at her, she must have been going for Beatrice too. But Snow was proud of herself – snagging the lead role was quite an accomplishment, even if it was for a crummy high school play.

"Ok, listen up everyone! The role of Benedick goes to… Florian Keller!"

More claps, more cheers, more groans. When Florian got onto the stage he gave her a quick peck on the cheek as a congratulations, making Snow go red.

"Moving on…"

Snow read out the rest of the cast list, and the audience mellowed out as she went through the list.

"Claudio… Phillip Ancel! Hero… Cinderella Celice! Don Pedro… Naveen Morton! Don Jon… Hans Lystad! Margaret… Aurora Rodier… Ursula… Charlotte Le Bouff!"

Soon the entire cast was on stage, all of them staring back at a disgruntled bunch of other students. Some of the younger looking ones were chatting to their friends in very loud, very angry whispers. Others had accepted their fate and were already on their phones.

"Thank you all for coming!" Snow called to get their attention. "I'll email you all scripts tonight and we'll meet again same time next week."

The students started filing out of the performing arts centre. Apart from Anna. She skipped over to Hans despite the fact that she wasn't part of the main cast. Snow didn't mind, Anna was a nice girl. She wouldn't disrupt them.

"Hey, good job guys," Florian started, and everyone started chatting excitedly amongst themselves.

"So since we have main parts should we meet up more often?" Naveen asked.

"Yes, every Tuesday and Friday. Does that work for everyone?" Snow suggested, and the answer was a resounding positive. "Great! So like I said, I'll email you all the scripts tonight, ok?"

More nods. Satisfied with the meeting, Snow dismissed them.

* * *

"Well done!" Anna twittered as she left the building arm and arm with Hans.

"Thanks. It's a shame you didn't get a role, though," he replied.

Anna shrugged and scuffed her shoe across the ground. "There's always next year, and besides, this year I'll be the best extra that ever lived!"

The two of them laughed together and started up the stairs to the main courtyard. Anna bounced up the stairs two steps at a time while Hans ambled along behind her. When they got up the stairs the courtyard was almost empty.

"Huh. You don't see that every day," Anna murmured.

"Yeah." Hans paused, then turned to face Anna. "You wanna go out for a drink or something?"

Anna's eyes lit up. "Sure! Where do you wanna go?"

"I was just thinking _Deja Brew_ since it's close," he suggested, and Anna nodded enthusiastically.

She was cute, Hans would give her that. But this constant enthusiasm could get grating… At least she wasn't as bad as Charlotte – he didn't know how any of her boyfriends had done it. He'd see how long it took for her to get insufferable, then see how things played out. But now he wanted coffee, so it would have to wait.

As the two red heads made their way to the school gate they were distracted by the click-clacking of heels on the stones. There was only one girl in school who wore proper heels – Aurora.

"Hey!" she called, and they turned around to see her strutting towards them.

Anna struggled to comprehend how Aurora had learnt to walk in her bright pink heels. Legend had it she could walk on grates with those five-inch monsters.

"Hi," Hans responded as Aurora met up with them.

From her time spent with Hans and his group of friends, they were people of few words when they were in a conversation with each other.

"You guys busy?" she asked, reaching for her phone.

"We're getting coffee. Wanna come?" Anna asked, and Aurora looked at her like she had two heads. Did she have something against enthusiasm?

"I guess so. They do espresso, right?"

"Yeah," Hans replied.

"Alright. I'll come with you. I'll text Jasmine, see if she wants to come."

"Wouldn't she be at home?" Anna asked in a more monotone voice, wondering if her lack of happiness would lead to a better response.

"She lives in an apartment, she can just walk over," Hans explained.

Anna nodded. Still no reply from Aurora… Maybe she needed to be _more_ monotone?

* * *

"What are you even staring at?" asked Florian, looking quizzically at his younger friend, Phillip.

"Let me guess…" Cinderella tapped her chin. "It's Aurora?"

Phillip nodded. He looked completely spaced out like there was nothing else in the world but Aurora. His friends had warned him off pursuing Aurora. Knowing her reputation she'd just leave him after one date and a brutal breakup, and they didn't want him to get hurt like that. But Phillip was determined, and nothing but his own lack of confidence was going to stop him.

"She really isn't worth it," Snow told him, shaking his arm to bring him back down to Earth.

"People can change," he said dreamily.

The group was sitting at one of the wooden picnic tables scattered around the field, the four of them waiting for rides home.

"I hate to burst your bubble, but I don't think she's that kind of girl," Florian told him, but Phillip just shrugged.

"There's a first time for everything…"

The older boy groaned while Snow and Cinderella giggled.

"Phillip," Cinderella started after getting over the giggles, "Why don't you just ask her out now? There's no harm in trying."

"Yeah. Maybe now since you've got a good part in the production she might like you better?" Snow chipped in.

"You think so?" Phillip asked, and the two girls nodded in unison.

"Absolutely!"

"Definitely."

Phillip glanced back in Aurora's direction. She was still there, beautiful as always. Her hair long and glossy, almost golden in the evening light. Her figure striking in the tight pink dress she wore. Her violet eyes shadowed by long, luscious lashes… She would be perfect if she had the personality to match.

Clenching his fists, he looked over at the two girls opposite him.

"I'm going to do it!" he declared, and the girls cheered and whooped.

Florian covered his face in his hands. "You're going to regret this…"

Phillip stood up and strode across the field and onto the stone courtyard. She hadn't noticed him yet, but Anna had. The young redhead waved. She didn't even know him, so why was she waving at him? Phillip would've ignored it if it hadn't been the cause for Aurora to notice him. She raised her eyebrow, looking confused as to what on earth he wanted.

"What do you want?" she asked when he reached them.

Composing himself, Phillip took a deep breath. "Are you busy this Saturday?"

Aurora's eyebrow remained raised, and she folded her arms against her chest. She suddenly looked intimidating, her heels allowing her to tower over him like a giant. She looked down at him, and Phillip suddenly realised how right Florian had been.

Aurora sighed, and with a clipped delivery she said: "I don't like you."

She turned on her heels and walked away, with Hans and Anna soon following after her. Phillip gazed after them, mouth hanging open slightly. He didn't know what he'd expected – he didn't know why he thought that would go well. But he'd tried, which was a mistake – because all she'd done was walk all over him in five-inch heels.


	16. Chapter 16: March 14th

**DISNEY HIGH SCHOOL AU – CHAPTER 16 – MARCH 14** **TH**

Mulan jogged up the stairs, mentally kicking herself for sleeping in so late. She hadn't heard her alarm go off, and though she told her parents to wake her up if she wasn't up five minutes after her alarm, then they had to come and get her. But of course, they forgot that morning, so Mulan had to miss breakfast just to get to school on time, and even then she was still late.

Her teachers would kill her…

Finally reaching the top of the stairs, Mulan dashed down the hallway, her sneakers squeaking on the linoleum. Today wasn't all that bad, in fact, it was the day she'd been looking forward to since day one.

She'd finally made it on the school's football team! She'd perverse the harsh, barren domain of the sexist coach, and proved her ability while covered in mud and grass stains. Today was going to be a good day.

Though being the only girl on the team would be tough…

When she pushed the door to her English class open, all eyes were on her. The teacher looked at her with raised eyebrows. "Where have you been, Ms. Fa?"

"I slept in," Mulan explained, and she could hear a few snickers from her fellow students.

"Of course you did…" the teacher ticked her name off on the role. "Please be seated."

Mulan nodded and hurried to her seat, trying to make as little fuss as possible. Phillip gave her a tiny wave as she sat down at their table, then the two of them quietly listened as the teacher droned on about how soon their assignment was due in. They were ahead of everyone else, so it didn't really matter…

"Did you actually sleep in?" Phillip asked once the teacher had finished.

"Yeah? Did you think I was lying?" Mulan asked, with a look of mock offense.

"Well, you can never be too careful."

The two of them laughed, and Phillip got out his laptop so they could make the finishing touches on their assignment.

"So, I have some really good news," Mulan said as they waited for the file to load.

"Oh yeah?"

"Well…" Mulan paused for dramatic effect. "I got on the football team!"

"Hey! That's really good!" she and Phillip high fived.

"What about you? How's the production going? Did you get in?" Mulan asked.

"Yeah, I got in."

Mulan frowned. "You don't sound happy."

Phillip dismissed it with a wave of his hand, but that only made Mulan want to discuss whatever it was even further. If it was that Aurora again… She'd have words to say, that was for sure.

"Come on," she said, poking his arm, "Tell me!"

"Alright, if you really want to know I asked Aurora out on the same night I got the part," he explained, and given his track record with Aurora, this story wasn't going to end well.

"And?"

"She doesn't like me."

"Oh…" Though Mulan could see that coming from a mile away, she still wasn't quite sure what to say. She'd never been that great at being tactful during emotional situations, so she mostly kept her mouth shut. But she couldn't exactly do that when she was the only other person there…

So she responded in the best way she knew how.

"She's not good enough for you!" she told him. "You deserve someone so much better! I wouldn't waste my time with stupid Aurora, she's not worth it and she never will be!"

Though Phillip seemed to like it, Mulan had failed to remember that Aurora was also in their English class. She'd heard every word of it, and she glared at Mulan with a gaze like daggers. Mulan saw, and she responded with her middle finger.

"Ms. Fa! Do I have to send you to the principal's office?" the teacher barked.

Mulan shook her head. "No Miss, sorry Miss."

She waggled her tongue at Aurora who simply scoffed and rolled her eyes. Chuckling, Mulan turned back to Phillip.

"Don't you think that was a bit much?" he asked. He'd clearly been laughing at their display.

Mulan shrugged. "Nope. I though she deserved it."

"Thanks."

"Anytime."

It was time.

The doors to the football field were the only thing in Mulan's way from becoming one of the only girls in the school's history to make the football team. Clenching and unclenching her knuckles, Mulan could hear the guys talking to each other and practicing. With every sound of the ball being kicked, she grew more and more excited.

Inhaling deeply, Mulan pushed the double doors open with all the force she could muster, then strode out onto the vivid green field. The team didn't seem to notice her, so she took that time to go over who she'd be playing with.

She recognised most of them, though she couldn't say that she'd talked to any of them. She knew Florian from the one time she went to production with Phillip, and she knew John because he was Pocahontas' kind-of-sort-of-boyfriend. She'd seen Henri around and once again only knew his name from Phillip. There were a couple of other guys that she vaguely recognised, but didn't know their names. Finally, there was Gaston – the biggest thorn in her side.

He was probably going to be against her even being there, and no doubt he was going to try and sabotage her somehow. He was bigger than her, stronger than her, had a bigger reputation than her… Anyone else would have given up by now. But though Mulan was terrified, she wouldn't let a brute like Gaston get in her way.

She had nothing to lose and everything to gain.

"Hey guys!" she called out cheerfully, getting some of their attention.

Florian gave her a cheery wave – but that was it. The others glanced at her and then went back to their drills. Ok, that wasn't quite what she was expecting, but it was only day one, and not even that far into it either.

She jogged over to them, her loose t-shirt soft on her skin. Though she'd had sport only one period before, her school PE uniform was drenched in sweat, so it was a good thing she'd brought something extra to change into.

Since Florian was the only one who seemed to want her there, she decided that approaching him was her best bet. "What are you guys doing?"

"Stretches, laps, y'know, the usual," he replied. Mulan knew he'd be a valuable asset to her school football success. Seeing as he was the only one who liked her and all…

"Mind if I join?" she asked, and Florian nodded.

"Sure! We're just waiting for Shang."

"Shang? Who's Shang?"

"Didn't you know?" Florian asked with a laugh in his voice, "He's the student coordinator. Was his name not on your application form?"

Mulan shook her head. "I guess not…"

"Well, now you know." Florian smiled, and Mulan smiled back.

She'd only done one lap around the field when Shang arrived. She was half way through her second lap when she saw the doors opening out of the corner of her eye. Not wanting to be late for something else, she jogged back to where the guys were meeting up. She was awfully short compared to them, and she was the only year 12… She'd just have to make the most of it, she supposed.

Shang had his back turned to them, and then much to Mulan's surprise he whipped his shirt off.

"Holy…" she whispered, hopefully not loud enough for anyone to hear her.

Was he doing that to get to her? Did he want to distract her? Or did he always come to football practice with his shirt off? Was he just proud of the abs he probably had? Was he showing off to a girlfriend hiding in the grandstand? Or a boyfriend? Mulan had so many questions and not enough answers.

The only answer she had was to why her face was bright red. Because when he turned around Mulan discovered that Shang was _hot._ Sizzling, throw it on the barbeque hot. She started to wonder if this was a good idea…

"Before we start anything, I'd just like to welcome the newest team member, Mulan," he said, and the voice matched the body.

All eyes went to her, and then to her bright red face. She waved sheepishly. "Hi, guys…"

He went on to tell them the details about the football season and their goals and when and where they'd be practising. But his abs… Mulan couldn't stop looking at those abs…

 _Put your shirt on Shang. Put your shirt on Shang. Put your shirt on Shang…_

Even during practice, they were distracting. Mulan only hoped that it didn't affect her playing because the last thing she wanted was to be kicked off the team because she got too distracted by the student coordinator's abs…


	17. Chapter 17: March 16th

Ever since John Smith had come into her life, Merida had found it impossible to talk to Pocahontas. It wasn't for a lack of interest on Pocahontas' side – she talked to Mulan, Flynn, and Kristoff just the same as before. But since she started dating John Merida suddenly found herself lost for words when it came to her year 13 friend.

The first time Merida ever laid eyes of Pocahontas, she'd felt something. At first, she thought it was just a silly crush and a phase – every girl has one, right? But by the time she reached year 10 and the crush was still there, she started to realise it was something more.

Pocahontas was so unattainable. She was smart, athletic, and artistic, all rolled up into one perfectly tanned, statuesque goddess-like form. In comparison, Merida was just a pasty, ginger, Scottish nobody who no one seemed to know existed. How she even got to be friends with Pocahontas was a mystery in the first place…

* * *

Lunchtimes were especially difficult since there was a 100% guarantee of John showing up. There were some moments where Merida and Pocahontas got there early, and that was the only time they got to talk before John arrived.

"Hey, Merida!" Pocahontas said cheerily as she dumped her bag on the grass.

"Hi," Merida replied, placing her tartan bag down with more care.

Pocahontas fell back onto the green grass, leaning against the thick tree truck behind her, and sighed in content. She looked so beautiful, her long inky black hair trailing down her back like a waterfall, the sun bouncing off of her perfectly tanned skin. She was everything Merida ever wanted.

"What'd you just have?" asked Pocahontas, a sure-fire conversation starter.

"Outdoor ed. We went biking," Merida told her.

"Cool! I used to take that in year 11. Do you know if you're doing that huge mountain tramp this year?" Pocahontas looked up at her with a smile.

Merida nodded. "Yeah, at the end of the year. Though some of the others are training for it already."

Pocahontas laughed, and Merida did too. She enjoyed this. The rare moments spent alone with Pocahontas were the ones Merida treasured most. She wished there was some way for her to tell Pocahontas that she loved her without making a fool of herself…

"God… I remember those guys. There's always someone who gets way too intense about outdoor ed." Pocahontas shook her head with a chuckle.

"Hey, Poca." It was John, his blonde hair perfectly styled and his outfit picked out so to perfectly outline all his finer, muscular aspects. The moment he arrived Merida busied herself with retrieving her lunch, cringing as she heard him kiss Pocahontas.

John never even bothered to say hi to Merida, though she didn't mind. But he didn't greet anyone else either, which was a little rude. Her mother had taught her that it was the better thing to do to greet people. It made them feel wanted, she always said. Merida certainly didn't feel wanted now…

"Hey babe," Pocahontas said as John said between her and Merida, another irritating habit he had.

Babe… Somehow she seemed uncomfortable in saying that.

"You busy today?" he asked, and Pocahontas cocked her head.

"Yeah, why?"

"It's two dollar coffee down at Deja Brew, wanna go?"

Pocahontas nodded enthusiastically. "Sure!"

The two of them chatted about their classes together. Since both of them were in year 13 they had more in common, so their conversations flowed far better than her conversations with Merida. Merida decided that she was not having a very good day.

Shortly after John arrived Mulan came along, followed by Flynn and Kristoff, and finally, Shang. He'd tagged along with John, so he'd been sitting with them since John started, which wasn't all that long ago. Though Merida couldn't help but see Mulan blushing when he arrived, and Merida could figure out why fairly quickly. Mulan was clearly in the same situation with Shang as she was with Pocahontas.

She tried to talk to Flynn about their next outdoor ed trip, but soon enough she found herself listening to Pocahontas and John rather than Flynn.

"I was thinking we could hit up a club this weekend," John asked quietly, and Pocahontas smiled and laughed.

"I don't think so. You're not talking to a girl who drinks, y'know," she told him, though John just shrugged.

"So don't drink anything."

This resulted in a hearty laugh from Pocahontas. It was a laugh that gave Merida goosebumps – it was so strong and had so much personality to it. But of course, it was John making her laugh… _She_ wanted to be that girl. _She_ wanted to be the girl who could take Pocahontas out for coffee and clubbing. _She_ wanted to be the one to call her Poca.

She wanted Pocahontas to love her as much as she loved Pocahontas.

"Hey Merida, are you ok?" Flynn asked.

"Huh?" Merida asked, looking from the happy couple to her brunette friend.

"You're crying. What's up?"

Merida raised her hands to her cheeks. Sure enough, they were wet with tears, so she wiped them away before anyone else could see. But they kept coming. Merida knew all too well why – she was losing Pocahontas and couldn't do anything about it. But she was usually strong, she never cried at anything… Why now?

But Pocahontas had noticed, and she was concerned.

"Merida? What's up?" she asked, crawling over to her.

"I'm fine," Merida sniffled, trying her best to get the tears to stop.

Pocahontas got closer, looking genuinely concerned. "You don't look it." She wrapped her arm around Merida, pulling her in closer. "You can tell me anything."

 _I only wish I could…_

Merida shook her head. She was so close. Merida could smell her, she smelled like pine trees and fresh air, her skin was as soft as her hair. All Merida wanted to do was nestle into the older girl's embrace and tell her everything. But she couldn't. She never would be able to.

"It's nothing," Merida persisted, but Pocahontas wasn't giving up.

"Merida, something's seriously bothering you. You know you can te-"

"No, I can't!" Merida snapped, pushing Pocahontas away. The older girl looked at her with wide eyes, and her outburst had caught the attention of everyone around them. Merida looked around, her normally pale face beet red. Everyone was looking at her…

 _I have to get out of here._

Doing the only thing she could think of, Merida bolted. Ignoring her friend's calls, she dodged through the many groups of students sitting on the courts. If everyone wasn't watching her before, now they were. But she didn't care, she just needed to leave.

Merida darted to the outdoor ed shed and grabbed her bike. Pushing it out and hopping onto it, she peddled like mad until she was outside the school gates. Teachers were yelling at her to come back, and she knew her friends had chased after her. But Merida kept peddling as fast as she could until she was as far away from Pocahontas as possible.

* * *

 _Thunk!_

Bullseye.

Merida lowered the bow. She had come to the place she always did when she needed to blow off steam – the local archery range. She was usually the only one there, and today was no exception. With the whole range to herself, she'd managed to get a bullseye on every single target.

She'd reached the end of the row. Collapsing against the metal wall of the room, she let out a frustrated sigh. Yes, she was skipping school, but it wasn't like she hadn't done that before. Her parents were used to it, so they wouldn't mind. But the main thing that was bothering her was Pocahontas.

Merida loved Pocahontas, she truly did. But the girl had brought Merida more trouble than anyone ever had before. She had never realised how complicated love was… She brought her knees up and wrapped her arms around them, resting her face on her knees. Memories of Pocahontas' early embrace came flooding back, and the waterworks started up again.

It wasn't like Merida to cry, and not this much either. All because of a girl… Her father wouldn't be proud, men of men that he was. He didn't raise his daughter to cry over a girl! And her mother raised her to cry over a guy…

Clenching her fist, Merida stood up and grabbed her bow. Glaring at it with contempt, she hurled it at the wall with a yell. The bow thudded against the wooden wall then fell to the ground. Merida stood there, panting from the exertion of the throw. After taking a deep breath she collapsed back onto the floor and leaned back, staring up at the roof, and sighed.

"Shit…"


	18. Chapter 18: March 17th

Eric was strolling out of his geography classroom, his mind whirring about their latest (impossible) internal when he felt someone tapping on his shoulder. He whirled around to find out that it was just Giselle. She looked up at him with a bright smile, her red hair adorned with a pale pink flower crown.

"Hey, Giselle. What's up?" he asked. Giselle took his arm and lead them down the corridor at a leisurely pace.

"Oh, not much. I was just wondering if you want to sit with me and the girls today," she suggested.

 _The girls and I,_ Eric corrected her in his head. He was no world class English student, but his somewhat old-fashioned upbringing had led him to be quite well spoken and very appreciative of correct grammar. Not that he let it show, of course. What would that do to his 'cool guy' image?

"Uh, sure. Sounds great. I just need to go grab something from my locker. Where do you guys sit?" he asked.

"Just by the fence under the trees. You'll see us, don't worry. See you soon!" Giselle flounced away, blowing a kiss as she went.

Eric walked down the corridor in the opposite direction towards the lockers. He liked Giselle, she was sweet. She also wasn't clingy, which was a nice bonus. He'd dated a clingy girl last year and it was the opposite of a good time… As far as girlfriends went, she was a good one.

He arrived at the lockers and pushed through the crowds of students to reach his own. Having a locker at this school was a bad idea, especially when your locker was in the middle of the rows… He'd much rather have one nearer to the end where there were fewer people.

Retrieving his books for the fifth period, he slammed his locker shut and jogged down to where Giselle said she'd meet him. Sure enough, there she was. She noticed him and waved him over with a bright smile.

"So guys, this is-"

"We all know Eric, Giselle," Tiana laughed, "No need to introduce him."

The other girls chuckled and Eric sat down beside his girlfriend. He'd never really spent much time with Giselle's group, so he'd never got to know them very well. He knew Anna from hockey, and she was a lot of fun. Everyone in the school seemed to know Tiana, and he was no exception. The other two he wasn't so familiar with, and he knew them by name only. There was Rapunzel, famous for her insanely long hair, and Ariel, who he knew absolutely nothing about.

Today, however, Ariel caught his attention. She seemed to be nervous about something, like something was worrying her. Maybe she had a test next period?

"Do you know who we're playing against tonight?" Anna asked in reference to they're hockey game after school.

Eric shook his head. "Nope, no clue. It's at seven so-"

"Oh my God! Stop with the boring sports talk!" Giselle complained with a laugh, leaning against Eric. That action only seemed to make Ariel go red – had Giselle and Ariel had an argument?

"Last time I checked you played rugby," Tiana shot back at Giselle with her arms folded.

Giselle shrugged. "Yeah, but I don't talk about it with people who don't play it."

"Well, I wasn't!" Anna said with a pout. "I was talking to Eric, not you guys."

The three of them started to bicker. Eric zoned out when they started raising their voices. He glanced at the two girls who _weren't_ arguing. Rapunzel seemed to be glued to her tablet, scribbling away at something with a stylus pen. Ariel was sitting quietly, flushed and with her eyes exclusively looking downwards.

"You ok, Ariel?" he asked, getting the girl's attention.

"Wha, um, me?" she asked, suddenly flustered. "I'm, uh, fine."

"You sure?" he asked, but that seemed to make it worse. Maybe he should've just left her alone…

"Yeah. Just… uh… peachy!"

"Ok…" Eric was sure that she wasn't "peachy." But it seemed that she'd rather not talk to Eric about whatever was bothering her, so maybe he should leave well enough alone. But then she did look particularly upset, and it was against his better nature than to ignore her.

He was stuck in a rock and a hard place, that was for sure.

"What do you think Eric?" Giselle asked, bringing his mind back from its travels.

"About what?" he asked, bewildered.

"Movies or TV?"

Funny. Eric could've sworn they were talking about sports…

"Uh, TV I guess."

"Me too!" Ariel chimed in, then looked as if she'd instantly regretted it.

"Ugh!" Giselle threw her arms in the air in frustration. "And here I was thinking my boyfriend was gonna back me up!"

Ariel lost all the colour in her face when she said "Boyfriend," and now she just looked sick. Something was definitely wrong, and Eric was going to get to the bottom of it.

"Are you sure you're ok?" he asked, "You look kinda sick."

"I do?" she asked, clamping her hands to her cheeks. Now she was an odd mixture of flushed and pale at the same time… It was incredibly odd.

"Yeah, you don't look so good," Tiana observed, the comment even drawing Rapunzel's attention.

"Maybe you should go home?" suggested Anna. "I could take you to the sick bay if you wanted."

"Uh, um…" Ariel seemed lost for words. "No, I think I'll just go to the bathroom."

With that, Ariel was up and gone, running into the bathroom and drawing a few gazes. The group exchanged a few worried glances amongst each other.

"I think I'll go check on her," Tiana announced, standing up.

"Oh! I'll come too," said Anna, hopping up.

The two girls dashed after Ariel, leaving Eric alone with Giselle and Rapunzel. They sat in silence for a while, none of them sure what to say. Rapunzel looked torn between talk and her tablet, and Giselle looked like she wanted to say things that she could only say alone with Eric. Eric was just confused about Ariel.

"Well," Rapunzel started the conversation. "It's nearly period five. Maybe we should just go to class early?"

"Yeah… I hope Ariel's ok." Giselle agreed.

The three of them started packing up their things and got ready for class. They exchanged their farewells and went their separate ways, all of their minds racing with what on earth could be wrong with Ariel.

* * *

"Hey, Kristoff?" Eric asked as he pulled on one of his shoes.

"Huh?" The younger boy turned to look at him.

Though he was hardly the most intelligent guys in the world, Kristoff was incredibly good to have a conversation with. He had so little going on in his own personal life that could only worry about other people.

"Do you know if people can get sick over guys?" he asked, and Kristoff looked at him as though he had two heads.

"First of all, why are you asking me about girls? And secondly, that's fairy tale crap," he concluded.

"Well, it's just that there was this girl I was sitting with at lunch, and every time I tried to talk to her she just started to look… sick."

Kristoff chuckled. "Maybe she thinks you're gross."

"Hah hah, very funny," Eric grumbled, rubbing the back of his neck. Maybe Kristoff wasn't the best person to go to for relationship advice after all… He then had the sudden realisation that Anna was on his team. She went with Ariel to the bathroom. Maybe she knew something?

"Gotta go," he said, shoving his other foot in his shoe and dashed out the door.

Fortunately, Anna was coming out of the girls changing rooms at the same time as him. He jogged over to her and tapped her on the shoulder. The ginger shrieked and whirled around to see who had touched her. She went bright red when she saw that it was only Eric.

"Oh, hiya! Sorry about that," she said with an embarrassed laugh.

"Hey, don't worry about it," he dismissed it. "Uh, do you know what happened to Ariel?"

Suddenly Anna looked nervous. Did he have this effect on everyone? Was he doomed to make every girl he talked to nervous? What a boring life that would be…

"She said she wanted to keep it private," was all she said, and she started down the hall towards the courts.

"Crap… Did someone die or something?" Eric jogged to catch up with her.

Anna giggled. "No silly, no one died. She just wants to keep it private, that's all."

"Does Tiana know?"

"Of course Tiana knows! She was there when she told us," Anna told him, then turned around to face him. "Why are you so interested, anyway?"

Eric shrugged. "She just seemed really sick. I was worried about her."

Anna frowned. "You do have a girlfriend, y'know."

"Yeah, but I can still worry about other people, can't I?"

"I guess so," Anna said, then glanced up at the clock. Her eyes went wide. "Crap! We're gonna be late for the warm-up!"

The two of them sprinted out to the court. Though all through the warm up Eric could only think about Ariel. All through the game, Eric could only think about Ariel. All through the ride home, Eric could only think of Ariel.

Was he falling for her?


	19. Chapter 19: March 20th - 21st

**a/n: Hey everyone! Surprise! I'm not dead! I can't tell you how sorry I am for leaving this story abandoned for so long without any notice. I just fell out of the mood for Disney and kind of forgot to update... Whoops... I started to get back into Disney the day I left on a holiday which also doubled as a laptop detox, so I would've updated sooner if I had my laptop with me! Anywho, just a warning that this chapter is a little, how shall we say, dirty, so read at your own discretion. If you aren't comfortable with reading any sexual content feel free to message me and I can debrief you on the chapter so as to not spoil it for anyone else. It doesn't get too bad (I don't think that I, a virgin, have the authority to write sex scenes), but better to be safe than sorry!**

 **Updates should be every two weeks now. I'll stop rambling and let you get onto to what you've all been waiting for - the update! Hope you all enjoy :)**

* * *

"Dad! I'm home!" Belle called out in a sing-song voice as she dumped her bag on the couch. She waited a moment for his reply, and when none came she rolled her eyes and started unpacking her homework.

It was typical of her father to be out in the shed tinkering – he often was around the time that Belle got home. Though now that she thought about it, he'd never told her what it was he was working on. He always said it was a surprise, so she never questioned it. Not that there was anything _to_ question. Belle's father was far too… portly, to be up to anything nefarious.

Though it was always the ones you never suspected…

Belle shook her head. She'd been reading too many mystery novels.

Almost as soon as she got settled into her homework, her phone buzzed. She gave an impatient sigh and picked it up – it was probably Vodacom telling her she'd run out of data. What she found, however, was most unexpected.

 _Hey, babe, it's Gaston. You busy?_

Belle furrowed her brow. She'd never given Gaston her number… How on Earth did he text her? Did someone give it to him? The only people who knew her cell number was her, her father, Elsa, and Adam, though you wouldn't know it for how little he texted her.

She certainly didn't give Gaston her number. It was impossible that it was her father. Adam didn't like her all that much, but he wasn't mean-spirited, so that ruled him out. That just left Elsa… But why would she do that?

There was only one way to find out, and Belle instantly rang up Elsa. There was a little bit of delay, but she soon picked up.

"Hi, Belle. How are you?" she asked with the sound of pages turning in the background.

"Not too good actually. I'm gonna cut to the chase – did you give Gaston my cell number?"

Elsa spluttered. "What? No? Why would I give your number to a guy like that? Especially after how much he's been bothering you."

It was true. Ever since their encounter outside the library Gaston had never left her alone. He leered outside of almost every class, then followed her until she met up with Elsa and Adam. They would pass each other in the corridors and he would make comments that made her stomach churn. Horrid, nasty, sensual comments that made Belle scared to be alone. He was constantly trying to set up dates with her, and it was getting difficult to make up believable excuses.

"Did he text you? What did he say?" Elsa continued.

"Yeah, he did. He asked me if I was busy and called me _babe_." Belle shuddered.

Elsa paused. "Can you block his number? That'll stop him texting you."

"I'll see after this call. God, Elsa… What do I do?" she slumped back in her seat and wiped her hand over her face. She was properly scared now.

"Keep ignoring him I guess. Have you told the teachers?" Elsa suggested.

Belle nodded, then realized Elsa couldn't see it. "Yes, but they don't listen. You know what they're like."

"Not really, I've never had to deal with them aside from my first day."

"Oh, well, they're useless." That comment made Elsa chuckle, and Belle was grateful for the levity.

"I could walk with you to and from school if you liked. Or carpool? My mum won't mind" Elsa offered, and Belle smiled.

"Thanks. That would be nice."

"I just think you should be alone for a while, that's all."

"Yeah, that's probably for the best." Belle was about to say something else when she heard the backdoor bang open – her father was back. "I gotta go, Dad's back. Do you know my address for tomorrow?"

Elsa made an affirmative nod. "See you then."

Belle disconnected the call and went back to her homework. Her father bustled through the living room saying a few quick greetings and asking her to do the dishes once she was done. Mundane things.

Belle wished that they were all she had to worry about.

* * *

 _She was running, that's all she knew. Down the school corridor? But it never stopped. Belle felt as though she was running on a treadmill, yet things were moving so fast._

 _Something – someone – grabbed onto her arm. She whirled around to see Gaston. She tried to scream, but nothing came out. He covered her mouth with a large hand and shoved her to the ground, only she didn't land. She just kept falling._

" _Belle?"_

 _Voices rang out, calling her name. Voices she knew. Her father's, Elsa's, Adam's. When she did land it was into Gaston's arms, and when she struggled to escape him he just clutched her closer. Showering her with sloppy, wet, awful kisses. She tried to shove him away and escape, but no. He just held her._

 _Tighter, tighter, tighter, tighter, tighter…_

 _She felt she would burst._

 _He dropped her, fell on top of her, pulled up her dress, pulled down her tights…_

 _WAKE UP!_

* * *

Belle bolted up, gasping for breath and sweating. She took a moment to calm down – that wasn't the first time she'd had that dream, but it never got any better.

It was light enough to see. Belle reached over to check the time on her phone – 6.20. Her alarm would go off in ten minutes. She collapsed back onto the pillow and tried to slow her breathing. She'd take the next ten minutes to calm down and compose herself for the morning.

She was dreading school. No, it wasn't school she was dreading. It was Gaston.

 _It's ok. Elsa and Adam will be there. They'll keep you safe. The school is too public for him to do anything. It's ok._

She only wished she could believe herself.

* * *

That day Elsa had hockey practice after school, so she couldn't take Belle home. Surprising them both, Adam had offered to walk her home. Belle supposed that not even Adam wanted her to fall victim to Gaston. She had to admit, it was touching.

She was waiting outside the library. Adam told her she'd have to wait for him. He was skipping hockey practice, because unlike Elsa, he was not dedicated to the sport or the team. He just had to make sure he didn't get spotted by the coach.

Belle had busied herself with a book, trying not to be too worried. But she couldn't concentrate. Not when she could feel someone standing beside her.

"You didn't reply to my texts last night."

Gaston.

Belle froze. She dropped her book and her palms grew sweaty. She couldn't believe that he was here.

 _Please hurry, Adam._

"Leave me alone," she stammered in a weaker voice than she would've liked.

"No. You've been avoiding me. I want to spend some quality time with you." He ran his meaty hands through her hair, and Belle shivered.

"I said leave me alone," she repeated in a stronger tone.

"Come on." He stepped out in front of her then leaned into the wall, leaving little space between them. "Any other girl would kill to be in your position."

"Please…"

He grabbed onto her wrist, his grip strong. Belle whimpered. She just wanted him to go away…

He caressed her cheek with his other hand, which slowly moved down to her breasts. She cried out as he squeezed them. She attempted to dart away, but he was stronger and faster than her. His grip didn't falter, and she was still in his grasp.

"Don't be like that," he whispered into her ear, and she could hear the leer in his voice.

The moment she felt his slobbery kisses on her ear she screamed, hoping desperately that someone would hear.

Gaston clamped his hand over her mouth, silencing her. It was just like the dream. Any minute now he was going to throw her to the ground. He was going to yank her tights down. He was going to…

Belle couldn't breathe. Her heart was beating a mile a minute. She felt weak. She couldn't do anything but whimper out one last cry.

"Help me…"

Suddenly Gaston was gone. Her wrist was free, she could move. She looked up to see Adam holding Gaston by the collar of his t-shirt. Her eyes went wide. Gaston and Adam were the same height, but Gaston would be able to take down Adam in a fight with a snap of his fingers.

"Leave. Her. Alone," he growled, but Gaston just smirked.

"And what're you gonna do about it, freak?" Gaston sneered.

Still holding onto Gaston, Adam reached into his pocket and drew out his phone. He tapped out a few numbers and showed the screen to Gaston, and Belle could make out that he'd just dialed 111.

"It's not about what I can do. It's about what the police can do." Adam let go of Gaston with a shove. "Now leave her alone or I'll call them."

Now Gaston was scared.

"No need for that," he said with a shaky laugh, "I'll leave."

With that he dashed back outside, leaving Adam and Belle alone. Adam went to her.

"Are you… ok?" he asked, for the first time looking as if he cared about her.

Belle found she couldn't speak, only make a feeble whimper. She slid to the ground, shaking and crying. Adam knelt down beside her and rather awkwardly wrapped his arms around her, clearly unsure of how to deal with the situation.

The two of them sat in silence, with only Belle's crying cutting through the eerie quiet.


	20. Chapter 20: March 24th

For a while, Charlotte had given up on dating. It had surprised everyone – the great dater Charlotte LeBouf giving up her crown? Not a chance. But she had. That mess with Henri would put anyone off dating no matter who they were.

It wasn't even the fact that he had a girlfriend as she'd dated guys who already had girlfriends before. The problem was that he hadn't told her. The other guys she already knew about or had told her, but Henri? No, he decided to keep it to himself, the little two-timer…

But a time must come when a professional must return to their craft, and by the time two weeks had passed she was ready to make a comeback. And there was only one boy who she could turn to.

* * *

Naveen was minding his own business, strolling leisurely to his English room when suddenly he was being attacked. Shrieking in the least manly way possibly, he whirled around to find his attacker.

But it was no attacker – it was Charlotte. He could've sworn she was still mad at him… Maybe she was an attacker after all? But she was smiling, so maybe she wasn't mad anymore. There was only one way to find out.

"Oh, uh, hey Charlotte. How are things?" he rubbed the back of his neck, hoping she hadn't paid his girlish shrieking any attention.

"Oh, not too bad," she replied coyly, "How you doin', sugar?"

She wasn't mad, that was for sure. But Naveen was pretty sure she'd retired from dating, or at least, that's what he'd heard. Either she was back in the game or she wanted to friend zone him. Either would be better than her sworn enemy – even the friend zone.

"Pretty good, I guess."

"How nice." She was walking with a slightly seductive sway to her hips. Yup, she was definitely back in the game. "You busy tonight?"

Classic Charlotte… "Not particularly. What, do you wanna go out or something?"

Charlotte nodded. Naveen was glad, but a little confused. Of all the people to go back to dating, why him? The last thing Charlotte ever did to him was shove him dangerously close to the corners of the lockers…

"You read my mind, darlin'. So, you wanna?"

"Yeah, sure, that'd be great. But I thought that you thought that I was dating Tiana?"

Charlotte dismissed him with a wave of her hand, though Naveen could see that the light in her eyes went out a little when he mentioned Tiana. "Never mind her. Besides, I've seen you with everyone but her, so unless you're very sneaky I think there's nothing going on between you."

"Right. So, since you know that there's nothing between us, are you guys gonna make up?" Even though Naveen hadn't spent much time with either of them since the breakup, he was sad to see their friendship broken. He was kind of hoping that they would make up, for their sakes.

However, from the way Charlotte's mood changed from perky to broody he figured that that wouldn't be the case.

"I don't think so, sweetie. Anyway, walk me to class?" her cheerful mood returned in an instant.

Charlotte looped her arm around Naveen's and leaned into his shoulders. Still a little disappointed that Charlotte wasn't going to make up with Tiana, Naveen started back along the hallway to their English class.

They agreed to meet up at Deja Brew after school then hit up the mall after some coffee. It sounded like a good time, a bit like the old times. If only Tiana was with them…

Ok, maybe he hadn't completely gotten over Tiana. But Charlotte didn't need to know, right?

* * *

"It sounds like you guys are getting serious," Rapunzel remarked before taking a sip of her frappe.

Anna smiled goofily. "I think so. He seems really into me."

Tiana smiled for Anna's sake, but really she didn't approve of Anna dating Hans. She didn't blame her – she was new, how was she to know about his heartbreaking reputation? But it was the fact that no one had thought to tell her was what annoyed Tiana. Granted, she was one of those people, and she was constantly kicking herself for it. She supposed it was nice to see Anna so happy – even more than usual. What she wasn't looking forward to was the inevitable breakup, which would most certainly turn on the waterworks.

"What about you, Rapunzel? Got your eye on anyone?" Giselle asked, and Rapunzel stared down at her plastic cup.

"No, there's no one for me. Even if there was, Mum would sooner burn our house down then see me date anyone." The source of most of Rapunzel's misery was her mother. She was strict, but not in the normal way. It was home by eight, no friends she didn't approve of, no restricted movies etc. Tiana had met her and she was nice, but she was a little intense. Not that it was any of Tiana's business.

"It's not like she needs to know." Giselle nudged Rapunzel lightly with her elbow, making the blonde blush.

"I guess not, but that doesn't change the fact that I don't like anyone in that way."

Giselle leaned back into her seat. "We'll have to work on that, what do you say?"

Anna's eyes lit up. "Hey, I'm a pretty good matchmaker. I did set up Giselle with Eric, and look how well that turned out."

"You'll be in good hands with this one." Giselle nodded in agreement, but then her gaze shifted to something else. Her eyes narrowed, then she leaned into Tiana. "Don't look now, but Charlotte and Naveen are here."

"What? Like, together?" she asked in a hushed whisper.

"Yup. Oh crap, she's coming over!"

Giselle and Tiana instantly resumed their casual poses from earlier as Charlotte sauntered towards them. Rapunzel looked more excited than she should be, but the other three were dreading what she had to say.

"Hey, guys." Charlotte's tone was more patronizing than Tiana would've liked. "I wasn't expecting to see you here."

"Neither were we," Tiana mumbled under her breath.

"Don't think I didn't hear that." Charlotte shot a glare at Tiana, but she soon resumed patronising them. "No dates I see."

"It is possible to have a good time without a date, you know," Tiana remarked with a raised eyebrow.

"Oh, is it? Well, I guess you know better than I do, what with all the boyfriends you've had…"

Tiana rolled her eyes. "Really? You're playing that card?"

"Well, it's not like I'm wrong…"

Tiana sighed. "Let's go guys."

Without protest her group followed her orders, knowing perfectly well why they were leaving so abruptly. Rapunzel looked a little disappointed that there wasn't more drama, but she stood up for her friend and walked out with them.

Tiana couldn't believe how petty Charlotte could be sometimes. Imagine her coming over to them just to bash Tiana for being single. She knew Charlotte wasn't the classiest girl in the world, but she thought that Charlotte had more than that…

* * *

"What did you say to them?" Naveen asked as Charlotte returned to their table, watching as Tiana's party filed out of the café.

"Just giving Tiana what she deserves, that's all," Tiana said nonchalantly, but when Naveen gave her a no-nonsense look she flushed and hung her head. "I made fun of her being single, that's all…"

"That's all?" Naveen spluttered. "That's kind of low, don't you think?"

Charlotte bit her lip, then rested her head in the hands. "Yeah… God, I don't know why I said that…"

"Neither. Look, what's the deal with you and Tiana anyway?"

Charlotte shot him an apprehensive look. "Promise you won't tell?"

"Promise." Naveen put his hand on his heart.

"Ok…" She took a deep breath. "I miss her. I mean, she said some terrible things to me, sure. But I miss her."

Now that Naveen wasn't expecting. He didn't know people like Charlotte were capable of remorse, but what Charlotte had just said proved him wrong.

"Oh jeez… Why don't you just tell her? I'm sure she feels the same way," Naveen suggested, trying his best to help her.

Charlotte shook her head. "I'm waiting for her to say it to me. I've got my reputation to think of, remember?"

Of course. Reputation was the only thing keeping two of the closest friends Naveen had ever seen apart. Though he valued his own reputation and wouldn't want it shattered for an instant, he did dislike the concept sometimes, like now, for instance.

He wanted to tell Charlotte to screw reputation and apologise to Tiana, but as long as they went to that school he knew that would never happen.

* * *

 **a/n. We reached chapter 20! Whoohoo! I thought I'd just let you know that there are only eight chapters left until the end of term one in the story. So after that, I may take a little break to smooth things out with the term 2 planning. I thought I'd just let you know in advance, but I'll remind everyone when we get to the last term one chapters. Hope you all enjoyed this update!**


	21. Chapter 21: April 4th

Snow dashed down the halls, sprinting at a pace she didn't know she'd be able to achieve. Clutching her binder tightly to her chest, her race down the hall startled some students and confused others.

 _I'm going to be late!_ She thought as she dashed out of the door and down to the performing arts centre. She'd completely forgot about production practice and had stayed behind in foods to go over some recipes with her teacher. It was only once her phone had buzzed with a text from Florian that she'd remembered.

When she was dashing down the concrete steps to reach the performing arts centre, she saw Cinderella walking her way.

"Snow! Where have you been?" she asked as Snow jogged up to her, "Florian's been warming everyone up for ages, and I think they're getting impatient."

"Sorry," Snow puffed, "I forgot."

"That's not like you." The two girls started walking back to the foyer.

"I really needed to get some help in foods. I've also been a little distracted, lately."

"Oh?" Cinderella wondered as she pushed the double doors open, letting Snow go past.

"Well, today's the day." Snow flushed as she dumped her bags and binder on the floor.

"Oh, I see," Cinderella said with a knowing smile.

The thing that had been distracting Snow was an audition – and not just any audition. She'd auditioned for a role in a big stage production, and today was the day that she'd get the reply. Whether she got the part or not was very important to her – she'd need to shape her last year of high school around it. If she got it, then she'd have to be away for a term or two, which meant a lot of internals and study to catch up on when she got back. But if she didn't, she'd just carry on as usual, albeit with a squashed dream.

"Well, good luck." Cinderella smiled as they entered the auditorium.

When Florian caught sight of his girlfriend, he gave a sigh of relief. Snow was pretty much in charge of the production, as the school's drama teacher was hardly enthusiastic. Which was a bit odd – what's a drama teacher without enthusiasm?

Snow soon settled the students down and they got started on rehearsals.

"I hope you've started learning your lines because we're going to be doing a run through of the play this week and work through each scene bit by bit with scripts. You're more than welcome to take them up with you, but only use them when necessary. Ok, everyone in act one, scene one, please…"

* * *

" _I'll make her come, I warrant you, presently_ ," Aurora said in a lackluster monotone.

Snow shook her head. "No, Aurora. You need more life!"

"I am," Aurora complained with an exaggerated eye roll.

Florian couldn't help but laugh. No matter how much Snow tried, she couldn't get any emotion out of her. How she even made the cast was a mystery to him. Maybe she had potential, maybe this was just a bad day, but all Florian could see was bad acting.

Yet there was Phillip, one of the better actors in the cast, staring wistfully at her like she was Ethel Barrymore.

"No offense, but I have no idea what you see in her," Florian said to him, voice lowered in case Aurora overheard him.

Phillip shrugged. "I don't know. She's just so amazing." He gave a dreamy sigh, and Florian rolled his eyes. Love could be so blind… He was just happy he got Snow when he did, or else she might have ended up with some loser like Gaston. She deserved the best, and he wanted to do well by her.

He and Snow had been friends since primary school, and what they had had only blossomed into love in year nine. Fortunately, it didn't ruin their friendship, though that seemed to be the case for a few other couples. For a while, everyone thought they would break up. No high school relationship would last that long, surely. But by the time they were in year 12, people stopped thinking that.

"You need someone better, Phil," Florian consulted his younger friend, but Phillip wasn't having any of it.

"I'm sure she's got some kind of niceness in there." He seemed determined to be in love with Aurora. Florian was beginning to wonder if he could change that. Even if they did end up dating, unlikely as it was, Phillip still deserved someone better. He wasn't all that familiar with the year 12 population, but surely there was someone nicer in the year group than Aurora.

" _I'll make her come, I warrant you, presently_ ," Aurora tried again. Slightly better this time, but she still needed improvement.

"That'll do for now. Could you work on that at home?" Snow asked, and Aurora nodded, though everyone knew she wouldn't bother. "Good. Let's carry on. Aurora?"

" _I'll make her come, I warrant you, presently."_ That attempt was more like the first one, though it looked as though Snow had had enough of instructing Aurora on her acting skills for one day.

" _Now, Ursula, when Beatrice doth come, as we do…_ uh… _trace this alley up and down, our talk must only be of Benedick."_ Unlike Aurora, Cinderella had done a much better job of acting her lines, though she hadn't quite memorised them all. She would look down at her script occasionally, halting the flow of the play. But it was early days, and she could be forgiven.

While the girls on stage continued to rehearse, Florian picked up his own script and started running over his lines from the scene he had just rehearsed. As he reached for the script, he noticed Snow's phone buzz.

Snow had left her phone with Florian – she didn't want any distractions – so he thought that she'd be ok with him taking a quick peek at what it was. He tapped the button to see what it was, and it was an email.

 _Could it be_ the _email?_ He wondered as the screen faded to black again. Suddenly he started to feel nervous about it, despite the fact that Snow should be the nervous one. He was nervous for her, and (though he hated to admit it) for his relationship.

If she didn't get the part, then she'd be miserable, and Florian hated to see her miserable. Because when Snow got sad, she got _sad_. She didn't deserve that. But then if she did get it, she'd go to another city to be part of the performance, and there were plenty of more wonderful guys than him in other cities. She'd drop him in an instant if she found someone else. Of course, he knew that she wasn't the kind of girl who would do that, but he still worried. Who wouldn't?

* * *

Snow wasn't expecting to be so relieved when the rehearsal was over. She loved the play and the rehearsal process, no doubt about that. But Aurora was just so hopeless! She usually didn't think ill of others, but Aurora really couldn't act. She wondered what the drama teacher had seen in her to let her be a part of it. If Snow had more choice in who was in the play she certainly wouldn't have picked her. Not that she'd say that out loud, of course.

After saying goodbye to the cast and telling them when the next rehearsal would be, she jogged up the stairs to get her phone and meet up with Florian.

"You have the patience of a saint," said Florian as she arrived, and he kissed her cheek as she bent down to get her phone.

"Thank you," she said with a smile.

"I know I don't," Cinderella said with a chuckle as she approached the two, "I was about ready to strangle her."

"Well, I wouldn't recommend that," Snow scolded, and the three laughed.

When Snow started to slip her phone into her pocket, Florian stopped her. "You may want to check that," he said, and Snow looked at him curiously.

She tapped the button that turned her phone on, and she nearly dropped it when she saw the email notification.

"What? What is it?" Cinderella asked, and then it dawned on her. "Do you think it's the theatre company?"

"I hope so," Snow said, her voice shaking.

"Well, what are you waiting for?" Cinderella encouraged her, and when Florian nodded in agreement, Snow opened the notification.

* * *

 _Dear Miss White._

 _We were very impressed with your audition tape. You have been selected to take part in our production of_ Alexandra _in the role of Tatiana. You may have time to think about whether you still want to take part, but we must have a reply by April 10_ _th_ _._

* * *

Following the acceptance, there was information about flights and other dull things, but Snow was too excited to read all of that.

"I got it!" she cried, and the room filled with the whooping and cheering of her, Florian, and Cinderella. The cheering was followed by lots and lots of hugging and jumping up and down, and by the time they'd all calmed down they were rather worn out.

Collapsing onto the seat, Snow couldn't stop smiling. Of course, she'd go! But that meant they'd need to rejig the production cast. Either they'd cast a new Beatrice or fiddle with the cast they already had.

"What are we going to do about the school production? If I'm away doing _Alexandra_ , there'll be no one to play Beatrice." She looked over to Florian and Cinderella for help. Cinderella looked blank, but Florian seemed to have an idea.

"Why don't you play Beatrice, Cinderella, and we could get someone else to play Hero?"

"That's not a bad idea actually," Cinderella mused, quite liking the idea of being the leading lady.

As Florian and Cinderella discussed the cast, Snow slipped back into her world of euphoria. She'd got the part! Out of who knows how many girls auditioned for Tatiana, she was the one that got that part! She couldn't quite believe it.

She opened up the email again and started to tap out a reply.

 _Yes, I am still on board for playing Tatiana. Thank you so much for this opportunity! I promise you won't regret it._

* * *

 **a/n: Hey guys! For those of you who are interested, the play they're rehearsing is Shakespeare's _Much Ado about Nothing_ , act 3 scene 1. The play Snow auditioned for, _Alexandra,_ is made up for the purpose of the story (though it's about the last Tsarina of Russia). I hope you all enjoyed this chapter!**


	22. Chapter 22: April 8th

**a/n: Hey guys! So once again I am so so so so so so soooo sorry for leaving this story without and update for so long. A mixture of school, sickness, and issues with my laptop prevented me from writing, so I hope you understand! Anywho, I'm on holidays for two weeks so I'll have more time to update! My goal is to finish up writing this term and get on to planning the chapters for term 2, so fingers crossed we can get there! Anyway, hope you like the update!**

* * *

The dance room was full of chatting, laughing students, all full of adrenaline from their incredibly active dance class. Anna and Giselle were included in this gaggle of students, though neither of them seemed to notice how down in the dumps Ariel looked. They didn't notice because they were talking about their respective boyfriends.

"Eric never takes me out to dinner," Giselle complained as she pulled her thick, ginger hair out of its ponytail.

"I wouldn't call it dinner," Anna mused, "We're just going out for a bite after rehearsal."

"I thought you didn't get a part?" Giselle said tactlessly.

Anna frowned. "Yeah, but he did." She turned to a nearby mirror to pull her hair back into their signature braids. "I need to be supportive."

"That's nice of you," Ariel said, but Giselle soon spoke over her.

"Are you sure you won't get jealous of the other girls who all got parts?"

Anna sent her a look with a raised eyebrow. Giselle should've really known better by now – Anna was the last person you'd expect to get jealous over anything. Giselle shrugged and went about changing out of her dance gear.

Since the rehearsals took place in the school's performing arts center, Anna didn't have to go far after she'd left dance class. In fact, she didn't have to go anywhere at all since the dance room and the drama room were both in the PAC. So she sat and twiddled her thumbs waiting for Hans to show up.

Before long, other students began to pile into the PAC, passing Anna by to get to the drama room. Anna was too busy playing on her phone to notice a certain blonde approach her.

"Ahem."

Anna jumped, almost dropping her phone, and looked up. It was Aurora. Anna knew she was one of Hans' friends, but she'd never talked to her. It had never seemed like Aurora even wanted to talk to her anyway, so what had made her change her mind?

"Hi, Aurora," she stammered out with as cheery a smile as she could muster. She couldn't figure out how Hans had befriended her – she was so intimidating!

"You're the kid that Hans is dating, right?" she asked nonchalantly, and Anna nodded.

"Yup, that's me!" Anna hesitated to mention that Aurora was only a year older than her, so she wasn't really a kid at all.

"Well, between you and me…" Aurora looked both ways and then leaned into Anna's ear. She whispered, "I would savor that privilege."

Anna furrowed her brow. "What do you mean?"

"Oh, nothing. Just know that it's not for the reason you think."

After that rather cryptic goodbye, Aurora strutted into the drama room, leaving Anna in a daze. Hans wasn't about to dump her, was he? No. He would never do that. Right?

Before she had time to mull it over anymore, she heard a familiar voice say her name.

"Hey, Anna."

It was Hans, and Anna broke into a smile. "Hans! Hi!"

As soon as he'd appeared Anna had completely forgotten about what Aurora had said. Besides, it was just Aurora being cryptic, no biggy. Apparently, she had the tendency to be like that just to scare people. But Anna wasn't scared so easy. Hans was hers, and nothing was going to change that.

* * *

"Um, Anna. You know you didn't get a part, right?" Florian reminded her, trying his best not to offend her.

Anna nodded, and with a slight sigh, she said, "I know that! I'm here to be a supportive girlfriend."

"Right. Well, since you're here could you give out scripts to the crew? They're the ones up the back being antisocial," Florian requested with a chuckle, gesturing to the students sitting up the back.

Anna giggled. "Sure thing."

She bounced up from her seat and took the scripts from Florian. She bounded up the steps and dumped the thick pile of scripts by the crew. After receiving their grunts of thanks, she turned to go back down the stairs only to find that Hans had disappeared.

 _But he was sitting right beside me…_ she thought. She glanced around the room to see if he'd gone to chat with someone else, but lo and behold, there was no sign of him.

She couldn't find Aurora, either.

Biting her lip, she dashed down the stairs and tapped Florian on the shoulder. "Did you see where Hans and Aurora went?"

"They went out to the foyer together." When he saw the look of dread on Anna's face, he quickly tried to remedy the situation. "They both looked pretty mad at each other, don't worry."

"Thanks…" Anna said, though she wasn't sure how better that had made the situation. If they looked mad at each other, then that lessened the chance of him cheating on her with Aurora… But what if that was just a front? However, if they were genuinely mad at each other, what would the reason be? She had to find out.

Anna made her way to the big double doors that lead into the foyer, but they swung open long before she got there. Aurora and Hans emerged, and Florian was right – they did look mad. Anna frowned and walked over to Hans.

"Is everything ok?" she asked, but Hans brushed her off.

"Yeah, fine. Nothing to worry about." He gave her a smile, but something about it was off.

"Are you sure?" Anna pushed the question.

"I told you, it's fine. Anyway, I need to learn some lines. Wanna help?" he suggested, and Anna readily nodded.

The two of them returned to their seats and they started to run Hans' lines. Though throughout their practice something seemed up with Hans. Even when he was on stage doing the actual scenes something was off. Anna knew better than to push it, but whatever had gone on between him and Aurora earlier hadn't been good at all.

* * *

The café was quiet. Being late in the afternoon, most Deja Brew's patrons had gone home for the day, and only the students with after school activities filled its tables. Anna and Hans were included in that group, though they were the quietest of all.

Anna took a sip of her hot chocolate, finding the silence uncomfortable. By now she was 100% positive that something was up with Hans. Though she knew better than to pry, if something was wrong she wanted to help.

"I wish you'd tell me what was up," she said, putting her cup down on the saucer.

"What do you mean?" Hans asked, though he clearly knew what she meant.

"What I mean is that you've been acting weird since rehearsal. Whatever it is, I want to help." She reached out to hold Hans' hand, but when their hands touched he pulled away.

Anna's face fell. "Is it something I did?" she asked faintly.

For a moment, Hans was silent. "We can't do this anymore."

"Wh…" Anna couldn't believe her ears. "What?"

"You heard me." He looked up at her. "We can't do this."

"I don't…" Anna trailed off.

"Understand?" he finished her sentence. "Neither do I."

With that he stood up and left, leaving some money on the table. Enough for both their orders. At least she wouldn't have to pay for her drink…

She couldn't do it. Looking on the bright side couldn't help because there was no bright side. She'd just been dumped by a guy who she was really starting to have real, sincere feelings for. It didn't even seem like he wanted to dump her in the first place, so why did he do it? What had she done wrong?

In the quiet of the café, Anna burst into uncontrollable sobs that shook her whole body. She knew she was making a scene, but she didn't care. At that moment, nothing could make her feel any worse than she already did.

* * *

Kristoff Bjorgman had nothing to do. He'd been out in town with a few friends, but their outing had been cut short when they found that they'd run out of things to do. So Kristoff had decided to drop into Deja Brew while he waited for his mother to get off work and pick him up. He'd expected the café to be half empty. What he hadn't expected was finding the red head from hockey balling her eyes out at one of the cafes.

Anyone else would've asked her what was wrong, but Kristoff knew he'd say something stupid that would make it worse. Instead, he made his way to the counter. But before he could order, he heard his name.

"Kristoff?"

He glanced over his shoulder to see Anna's watery blue eyes staring up at him. Well, there was no turning back now…

"Hey, Anna. How's it?" he asked despite already knowing the answer.

She rubbed her nose on her sleeve and sniffled, "terrible." She burst out into more, even louder sobbing.

Kristoff took a deep breath and took the seat beside her. "You wanna talk about it or something?"

"He dumped me!" she wailed, and Kristoff instantly knew who had done the dumping. He had seen her around with Hans, both of them acting in a way that was more than friendly. He'd never liked that guy.

"Well, it's not like he was the greatest in the first place," he said, then wished he'd kept his trap shut.

Anna looked up at him with a mixture of shock, anger, and overwhelming sadness in her eyes. "What?"

Somehow he responded in an even more tactless way than before. "I mean, he's had a lot of girlfriends before you, and, to be fair, you'd only just met the guy, soo…."

"Shut up!" Anna yelled, all her misery suddenly turned to rage. "I really liked him! And he was miles better than you! You… you… Pig!" She got up and stormed out of the café, leaving a half empty mug in her wake.

The café staff looked on from the kitchen, wondering what on Earth the chunky blonde and the tall ginger had done to piss off the slender redhead to badly…

* * *

 **a/n: Hey ya'll, me again. So one thing I've done while I've been away is start up a tumblr! You can find me at dottydisney (blog name is Blooming in Adversity.) So yeah, go check that out for updates on my writing, my writing schedule, and all things Disney! Thanks a bunch :)**


	23. Chapter 23: April 11th

Aurora gazed dull-eyed at her morning coffee as the babbling of her three aunts went in one ear and out the other. She was certain they were talking to her, but she didn't particularly care about what monstrosity Aunt Fauna was going to make that night. Even the granola bar that sat by her cup was more interesting than that.

However, there was one thing that perked her interest.

"Aurora, dear," said Aunt Merriweather as she poured herself a glass of orange juice, "You do remember we'll be leaving town tomorrow, don't you?"

Aurora didn't remember because she hadn't been told, but that didn't make the news any less exciting. There was only one thing to do when the cats were away…

"Oh, yeah, sure," she replied, sipping her coffee. "Remind me when you were coming back?"

"We'll be gone all week, dear," Aunt Flora butted in, earning her a scowl from Merriweather.

"So this time next week you'll be back?" Aurora needed the exact details in order for her plan to work.

"We'll be on our way, at least," Aunt Fauna said with a smile.

"Alright then," Aurora said, smiling as she took a bite of her granola bar.

While Aunt Merriweather and Aunt Fauna were distracted in the kitchen, Aunt Flora leaned into Aurora with a concerned look on her face.

"You will keep this place in good shape, won't you?" she questioned, and Aurora was reminded of the last time her aunts were away for an extended period. The party she'd thrown then had gone down as a school legend.

"Of course, Auntie Flo. You know me!" Aurora chirped with a smile.

Aunt Flora frowned. "Yes, I do know you, and last time we went away the bathtub had wandered into the living room."

"That wasn't me," Aurora said with an innocent shrug. It was her, really, but Aunt Flora didn't need to know that.

"Well let's just pray you've learned from last time."

With that, Aunt Flora wandered off to get ready for work along with her two sisters, leaving Aurora alone with her empty coffee cup and a half-eaten granola bar. Smirking, the young blonde wolfed down the rest of her bar and dashed up to her room, yanking her phone off of its charger. She instantly went to the group chat she had with her two best friends, Hans and Jasmine, and started typing:

 _Having a party tomorrow. Spread the word._

* * *

Hans and Jasmine had clearly done a good job because the moment Aurora had arrived at school people were crowding around her wanting to know about the party. The crowd was made up entirely of juniors, exactly the kind of people Aurora didn't want coming in the first place.

"Will there be drinks? Y'know, the alcoholic kind?"

"There better not be any adults around."

"How long will it go for? I need to be home by ten."

"Are there gonna be strippers?"

To silence the juniors, Aurora clapped her perfectly manicured hands and cleared her throat. "First of all, what kind of party _doesn't_ have alcohol? Jesus, it's not an intermediate party. Secondly, my aunts are out of town, and what kind of idiot throws a bash with adult supervision? Thirdly, it will go as long as I want it to. Fourthly, why the hell would there be strippers? Do I look like the kind of person who would hire strippers? And lastly, none of you are coming. Go away."

After her lengthy explanation, the disappointed juniors dispersed, leaving Aurora a free woman once more. Shutting down the juniors felt better than she expected, but it was necessary. The last thing anyone wanted was to spend any amount of time with a junior, especially at a party.

"Nicely done," Hans said, impressed, and Jasmine nodded in agreement.

"Couldn't have done it better myself."

"Thanks," Aurora said, whipping her phone out of her pocket.

Aurora's speech seemed to have spread around the school because the juniors had stopped bothering her altogether, which was nice. Now her job was to make sure Hans and Jasmine had invited all the right people.

She confronted them during their first class, English.

"So, who did you invite?" she asked as she settled down into her plastic chair.

Hans and Jasmine began to rattle off a list of names, and Aurora picked through it, giving her approval and disapproval at each name. By the time they'd finished, they'd come up with a decent guest list. Of course, Aurora couldn't stop people crashing, but that was half the fun of parties. However, there were still a lot of people she wanted to invite – and one, in particular, was sitting a few tables over.

"So you've invited everyone in the football team except for the new girl," she interrogated, popping a piece of gum into her mouth.

"Well, we figured since she hangs out with that weirdo who asked you out that one time-"

"Shut up, Hans," she cut him off with a raised hand.

Jasmine and Hans exchanged glances. Sometimes they couldn't even figure out how her mind worked…

"Ok, well, should we invite her?" asked Jasmine, "Because she might bring that guy and-"

"Yeah, but I can kick him out," Aurora butted in once more. "Anyway, we need – uh what's her name, Mandy, or something? – because that way we can be popular with the feminists."

Jasmine struggled to put two and two together, and when Aurora figured that out she gave an exaggerated sigh. "The only girl on the football team? Hello!"

"Oh, right," Jasmine nodded, finally catching on.

"Look, you go talk to her after class. Make sure she promises to come," Aurora instructed Jasmine, and the dark haired girl nodded. The three of them finally got onto their work, though it wasn't school work. It was party planning work.

* * *

"Oh lord, here she comes."

Snow, Cinderella, Florian, and Phillip braced themselves as the tall blonde sashayed over to them, towering over them in her inky blue heels. They'd all heard about Aurora's upcoming party – everyone had – so it was only a matter of time before she got round to them.

Especially with Snow and Florian being the school's most popular couple. Speaking of couples, the year 13s of the group could tell that somehow this latest run in with Aurora would not go well for their young friend, Phillip.

"You've all been invited?" Aurora asked briskly, not even bothering to say "hi" before launching into party business.

"No, I don't think so," Florian said with the most convincing smile he could muster.

"Really? Now you are." She paused and glanced over Phillip like he had the bubonic plague. "But you're not."

If Phillip was disappointed, he didn't show it. But his friends now knew him well enough to tell that Aurora's presence had done nothing good for him.

"Thanks, Aurora. We'll be there." Snow's primary objective was to get her to leave as quickly as possible. It worked, and she sauntered off almost immediately.

Now Phillip showed his disappointment.

"Well, what did I expect?" he asked with a disheartened sigh.

Snow wrapped her arm around him and pulled him in close. "Don't let it get you down, you don't deserve that."

"And she doesn't deserve you," Florian muttered under his breath, but it was loud enough for Cinderella to hear, and she couldn't help but chuckle a bit.

After a brief scolding look at Florian, Snow returned her attentions to Phillip. "I know you like her and all, but maybe it's time to move on?"

"I guess," Phillip shrugged, "But I don't think it's that easy."

"Trust me, it is," Cinderella said with an eye roll, but then she realized something. "Hey, Phillip."

"Yeah?"

"Why do you like her, anyway?"

Phillip shrugged again. "I don't know. There's just something about her… I mean, she's beautiful, I don't think anyone can deny that. But she's also so… confident in herself. She's not afraid to say what she wants and do what she likes, and anyone who commands as much power as she does around school deserves some kind of respect."

"When you put it that way…" Florian murmured to himself.

"So you really like her then, it's not just a crush," Cinderella asked, and Phillip nodded. "Well, if you really like her, going to that party might be a way of getting to know her better."

Phillip gave her a sideways glance. "But I'm not invited."

"She didn't say I couldn't bring a plus one, and with Henri out of the picture, I think you're just the guy I want to take."

"Really? You'd do that?" Phillip asked in disbelief, and Cinderella chuckled.

"Of course! After all, what are friends for?"


	24. Chapter 24: April 11th

**a/n: So after almost a year after I posted the last chapter, I caught _Aladdin_ on TV and got the sudden urge to update this fic again. So here it is, short, sweet, and hopefully better written (I have had a year to practice, after all). Something with a bit more chill before some major drama in the next two chapters.**

* * *

Mulan collapsed on the field, breathing heavily, relishing the roar of the crowd in her ears. A smile broke out on her face – _yes, we won_!

That night had been the first big, proper game for the football team, and it would've been an understatement to say that Mulan had been nervous. Not for her lack of skill – she'd shown her prowess in every practice they'd had – but for how little her team believed in her. It seemed that only Florian had high hopes for the game. The rest had just written the team off as a failure simply because Mulan was there in the first place. Which was ridiculous when she thought about it.

Yet there she was, her heart doing somersaults because not only had her team won the game, but she'd been the one to score the winning goal.

Suddenly, she was being lifted off the ground. She found herself surrounded by her teammates – Florian, Henri, John, even student coordinator Shang. Everyone except Gaston, it seemed.

"Way to go, Mulan!" John said, slapping her on the back.

"Yeah, you totally won it for us," Henri said with a nod.

Mulan cast her eyes downward, tucking a lock of muddy hair behind her ear. "Well, it was really a team effort."

"Hey, there's no need to be modest," Florian scoffed. "You had that game in the bag from the start."

As the guys kept singing her praises, Mulan's attention drifted towards Shang. He was there, sure, smiling and grateful. But he hadn't really said anything, and it hurt Mulan more than it probably should've. Though the official title was student coordinator, he was essentially their captain, and she would've liked a bit of recognition from their leader. She tried not to let it bring her down, yet it sort of did.

As the team made their way to the benches, Mulan gave a slight shake of her head. Why was she getting so caught up in getting his praise? It was enough that she was proud of herself – that was the most important thing.

Gaston had got to the bench before the rest of them, and he was wiping his face down with a towel. Henri sat himself down beside him, elbowing him playfully. "Hey, you got anything to say to our MVP?"

Gaston shrugged. "Am I supposed to?"

A collective eye roll ensued. Everyone knew that, although none of them had been wild about Mulan at first, Gaston was the least happy about her presence. The others had obviously come around on her since she managed to score half their points, but Gaston still seemed unimpressed. Mulan supposed the guys would just tease him about it now.

"I think at least a 'thanks for winning the entire game, Mulan' would do," John remarked before taking a swig from his drink bottle.

"She didn't 'win the entire game,'" Gaston grumbled, starting towards the changing rooms.

Mulan folded her arms and called after him. "I hate to be that guy, but I kind of did."

Gaston paused, shot her a dirty look, then kept on walking. Mulan cocked an eyebrow – seriously, what was his problem?

As the rest of the team followed after Gaston into the changing rooms, Florian leaned in and whispered: "He can pay for dinner."

Snorting, Mulan gathered up her things and headed inside.

* * *

Dinner ended up being pizza, which Gaston most certainly did pay for.

They'd gone to one of the cheaper places, the kind that a bunch of high school students could afford. But it was good – exactly the kind of greasy junk they needed to celebrate a victory.

Mulan was enjoying herself. She'd never really had much opportunity to hang out with a party of all guys before, especially ones this boisterous. Since it was so late, they were the only ones at the pizza place, so no one seemed to mind how loud the group was. It was the kind of fun that Mulan's parents would never allow, which made it all the better. But the fun had made her parched, so she'd separated from the group to get a refill of lemonade.

Having slid the lid back on her now full cup, Mulan turned back to the table, only to bump right into Shang.

"Oh, hey, sorry," Mulan spluttered, blushing.

Shang only chuckled. "Don't worry about it."

He stepped past her, sliding his own cup underneath the refill machine. Mulan watched as a gush of coke slowly started to fill up his cup, then looked up at Shang himself. She couldn't deny that he was attractive – she'd thought so the moment he whipped his shirt off at their first practice. But her original crush had developed into something more like admiration, as he was exactly the kind of athlete that she wanted to be. Strong, powerful, fair. He was everything you'd want in a sportsman.

"I know I haven't said much to you since the game ended." Shang suddenly speaking caught Mulan completely off guard, and she completely missed what he said.

"Huh? Sorry, wasn't listening."

A smirk flickered on his lips. "I said that I haven't spoken to you since we won the game."

"Haven't you? I didn't notice." She did notice. And it bothered her a lot.

Shang pushed down on the refill button, stopping the steady stream of coke. He turned and leaned against the machine. "Well, just know that I am grateful for what you did today. I don't think we would've won without you."

"Really?" Mulan asked, butterflies dancing in her stomach. "I'm, uh, glad you think so."

"Mhm. And look, I know I've been pretty crap to you at practice, and I'm sorry about that. I guess I just didn't know a good player when I saw one."

Mulan bit her lip, trying not to freak out about her sporting idol praising her so much. "It's… It's ok."

"It isn't," Shang shook his head. "I've been neglectful to you, and that's not fair. I should've been helping you as much as the other guys."

Taking a sip of her lemonade, Mulan mulled over how to respond. "Well, so long as it doesn't happen again, I'm cool. Thank you, though."

The two exchanged small smiles before glancing back over to the booth where the rest of the team was sitting. It was all laughter and smiles, with the previously sour Gaston both entertaining and disgusting the guys with stories of his sexual conquests. Mulan winced – she hated that kind of thing.

It seemed Shang did too, judging from his pained expression. He looked down at Mulan. "Have you got a ride home?"

Taken aback by the question, Mulan took a moment to answer. "No, my parents would hate seeing me in a place like this. I thought I'd just get a lift with one of you guys."

"Well… I could take you if you want."

Mulan glanced up, meeting eyes with Shang. She couldn't help but grin at his sheepish expression, almost as if giving her a lift home was as important as asking her on a date.

Still smiling, Mulan replied: "Yeah, I'd love that."


	25. Chapter 25: April 12th

**a/n: This chapter contains attempted sexual assault, so consider yourself warned!**

* * *

Tonight was the night.

Aurora stood in the middle of her living room, staring around at the set up she'd done for the party. It wasn't her best work, to be sure, but it would do. It's not like anyone would care about the décor anyway – everyone was pretty much coming for the booze and the dancing.

To be fair, that was all Aurora was there for as well.

When the thud of an EDM track started blaring through the house, Aurora jumped. She shot a glare at Jasmine, who was busy by the sound system. "A bit of warning, next time?"

"Sorry, sorry," Jasmine replied as she hurriedly turned down the volume. "Didn't realise it would be so loud."

Aurora rolled her eyes. She'd invited Jasmine and Hans over early to help her set up, as per usual. Not only that, but it was good to have more than one person around when the first guest arrived. Made it look less pathetic.

Hans appeared from the kitchen wielding two bottles of whiskey. "Think we should break these out later?"

"No, let's start with them," Aurora replied, snatching one of the bottles from Hans' hands and making her way over to the glasses cabinet. As she poured the whiskey into three shot glasses, she didn't notice Jasmine and Hans exchanging a frown.

Rising from her crouched position, Jasmine asked: "Won't your aunts be mad if you drink that?"

Handing around the glasses, Aurora shook her head. "I'll just fill it back up with cheap stuff, they'll never know."

Shrugging, Jasmine and Hans joined Aurora in downing the shots. Shaking her head, Aurora cracked a wicked smile and turned the music back up.

* * *

To say the party was a success would be an understatement. Although not everyone she'd invited hadn't turned up, the place was still packed. So much so that there were people spilling out into the garden. Aurora smiled as she oversaw the event, checking out some of her more esteemed guests.

There were Snow and her crew, which was great given their popularity. Although they'd brought that Phillip weirdo, who Aurora specifically membered blowing off. Pretty much the entirety of year 12 was there, and a few year 11s who managed not to ruin everything with their immaturity. Of course, Gaston was there, but mostly just to show everyone that Aurora was not single thank you very much.

Not that she'd seen him more than once that evening, but that didn't matter. So long as he was there and telling people they were dating, all was well.

Jasmine sauntered up to the couch, collapsing beside Aurora. "This totally rocks."

"Jasmine, you're wasted," Hans said, taking a sip from a beer bottle. "No one's said 'totally' since the 90s."

"Tooootally," Jasmine slurred, then burst into a fit of giggles.

"Ugh, she needs to learn how to hold her liquor," Aurora scoffed. As Hans nodded, Aurora realised that she hadn't had anything to drink since those first whiskey shots. Quite frankly, she needed a bit more alcohol in her system.

Telling Hans to save her seat, she got up and headed for the kitchen. On her way, she couldn't help but notice Charlotte and Naveen getting really handsy with each other against the wall. Rolling her eyes, she made her way over to them, clearing her throat to get their attention.

"What is it, sugar?" Charlotte asked through hiccoughs and giggles.

"This house has thirty-five rooms. Get one."

Having said her piece, Aurora turned on her heel and carried on towards the kitchen. She didn't have any issue with couples making out in her house – hell, there was a couple going at it on the living room floor. But Naveen and Charlotte were just so… sloppy. It made Aurora feel like puking.

Arriving at the fridge, Aurora yanked it open and pulled out an ice-cold beer. Taking a moment to appreciate the cool air from the freezer, she didn't notice the kitchen door closing before it was too late. Whirling around, she frowned at the sight of Gaston leaning against the wooden door.

"What are you doing?" she asked, twisting the cap off her beer.

Gaston sauntered towards her. "Just getting some quality time with my gf."

She sighed. "Gaston, you know that's just for show, right?"

He rested his hand on the counter, trapping Aurora by the fridge. "Yeah, but I think I deserve a bit of payment for my services."

When he raised his meaty hand to caress her cheek, Aurora slapped him away. "Get off me, you creep!"

But he grabbed her wrist, and Aurora let out a little shriek as he pinned it against the freezer. There was nothing that made Aurora more uncomfortable than physical contact, especially when said contact was non-consensual. She tried to worm her way out of his grasp, but he was far stronger than her. Taking a deep breath, Aurora tried to speak with as level a tone as she could.

"Gaston, please let me go."

But he only grabbed her other wrist, making her drop her beer in the process. As the glass shattered on the linoleum, Gaston planted his lips on hers in the sloppiest, wettest kiss she'd ever had. Aurora kicked at his shins, tried to pull her head away, but she couldn't. The moment he ended the kiss, Aurora cried out.

"What the hell! Let go of me!"

In response, he slapped his hand over her mouth, silencing her. Aurora's eyes went wide as his mouth broke into a sneering grin, and they began to water as he shoved his free hand up her skirt. Squeezing her eyes shut and whimpering, Aurora only hoped he'd be quick.

But then suddenly he let go of her. A rush of air expelled from her mouth, and she hadn't realised she'd been holding her breath for so long. Sliding down to the floor, it was only then that she noticed there was someone else in the room. Whoever they were, they must have said something, because Gaston was retaliating.

"Oh yeah? What are you gonna do about it?"

She couldn't see who her rescuer was from being behind Gaston's bulk, but they'd given her the chance to escape. But when she tried to move, she couldn't – her legs were like jelly.

Gaston laughed as her rescuer threw a punch, and he caught them by the wrist. Ok, now Aurora could tell it was a guy, so that was something. Gaston grabbed his wrist and then flung his own fist into the guy's face. It connected with a crack, and Aurora winced at the sickening sound.

Outside, the noise seemed to die down as people came to see what was going on. Although the guy was well intentioned, he was no match for Gaston's strength. He got a second punch in, sending the guy stumbling backwards. A third hit sent him careening backwards, and Aurora let out a shriek as he fell back and cracked his head against the corner of the counter.

She couldn't watch any longer – she had to get out of there. Legs feeling stronger, Aurora scrambled out before Gaston could notice her escape, and she stumbled out of the kitchen straight into Jasmine's arms. Before she could even think of what to say, she burst into an uncontrollable fit of sobbing.

"Oh my god, Aurora, what happened?" Jasmine asked, apparently having sobered up a little since she last saw her.

Between sobs, Aurora managed to speak. "He… he… Oh god, he was touching me…"

Jasmine pulled her into a tight hug. Though she hated physical contact, she didn't mind it so much if it was Jasmine or Hans. They were her closest friends, and they'd been through some tough stuff together. Now was no exception.

Speaking of Hans, he looked as though he was seeing red. "Do you want me to punch him? Because I really want to punch him."

"No, no," Aurora shook her head. "You'd end up like…" She faltered as she remembered her unidentified rescuer, who by the sounds of it was still getting his butt kicked by Gaston.

She turned away from Jasmine to look back into the kitchen, but there was such a crowd surrounding the doorway that she couldn't see past it. They were just watching, not doing a thing to help… It made Aurora feel sick to her stomach.

Just as the thought crossed her mind, Florian and Henri pushed past her group and then through the crowds, hopefully, to break them up. She breathed a sigh of relief, then looked back to her friends.

"Did – did you guys see who went in after me?"

Jasmine and Hans both shook their heads. "No. We only heard something was going on when people started yelling about it," Jasmine explained.

Aurora looked back to the kitchen, furrowing her brow. It seemed the fight had ended – Henri was only just holding Gaston back. But she still couldn't see who her rescuer was.

Gritting her teeth, Aurora resolved she'd find out who he was no matter what stood in her way.


	26. Chapter 26: April 12th - 13th

Although she'd been invited, Mulan had decided against going to Aurora's party. It just wasn't her scene – hanging around, getting drunk, dancing to music with no beat. Not exactly her idea of fun. Besides, she was still sore after the other day's football game, and she needed to rest.

So that was how she found herself studying for an upcoming maths test when she could be partying the night away. Lying in bed and resting on her stomach, Mulan cradled her head in her hands. Whose idea was it to make maths so difficult anyway? Someone with a cruel sense of humour, probably.

Sighing, Mulan checked the time on her phone. 11.50. Deciding she'd have a better chance of getting her head around trigonometry when it wasn't so late, she shut her maths book and attempted to throw it back on her desk. It missed, landing spine down on the carpet. For a moment she thought about getting up to retrieve it, but then decided against it.

Getting to her knees, she crawled up to the head of her bed and was just about to get under the covers when her phone started to vibrate. Frowning, Mulan picked it up to see what the fuss was. Phillip was calling – what would he want at this time of night?

Tapping the answer button, Mulan held the phone up to her ear. "This had better be important."

To her surprise, it wasn't Phillip's voice who replied, but Snow White's. "Hi, sorry, is this Mulan? Oh, it's Snow, by the way."

"Yeah, it's me." Mulan furrowed her brow and started picking at the woollen blanket that adorned her bed. "Is everything ok?"

"Well, uh, not really."

Mulan straightened up. "Is Phillip ok?"

There was a moment of silence on the other side, and a sick feeling of panic formed in Mulan's stomach. Had something happened to him? They hadn't been friends for that long, but he was a good guy, and she cared about him. She didn't want to see him hurt.

"Not really," was Snow's reply. "He got himself into a fight at Aurora's party. We're on our way to the hospital with him now-"

"Hospital?" Mulan cried, a little louder than she meant to. "You mean it's serious?"

"We hope not. But he hit his head quite badly…"

Before she knew it, Mulan was out of bed, scrambling to find her shoes and a hoodie. "Look, I'm gonna meet you there, ok? See you soon."

She promptly hung up, and by the time she'd slipped her phone into the pocket of her pyjama shorts, she was halfway towards her parent's room. She didn't even bother knocking first, busting right through the door. Fortunately, her father was still awake. When he shot her a look of concern, Mulan gave her order.

"Dad, I need a lift."

* * *

When Mulan was first assigned Phillip as her English partner, she certainly didn't expect she'd end up running to the hospital at midnight for him. Yet there she was, pacing the lobby, waiting for Snow to show up.

It was strange – she'd known him for less than a term, but she felt like Phillip was one of the closest friends she had. She certainly wouldn't be rushing to the hospital for someone like Flynn, who'd she'd been friends with for a good two years now. Funny how relationships work.

To her surprise, when Snow arrived, it was not from the outside, but from the inside. Mulan was immediately at her side, her eyes flaring with urgency.

"Ok, just tell me what the hell's going on."

Snow gently guided her to one of the plastic seats that lined the waiting room. "Well, from what it sounds like, there's nothing to worry about. Just a few bruises and a mild concussion, that's all."

Mulan breathed a sigh of relief. "So, he'll be ok, then?"

"The Doctors seem to think so," Snow replied with one of her bright, red-lipped smiles. "They even said we'll be able to go see him soon."

Raising one eyebrow, Mulan asked: "How soon is soon?"

"Half an hour, I think."

Mulan leaned back in her chair, ignoring the creak of the plastic as it strained against her weight. "Guess I'll be staying here for a while then."

Snow chuckled, and then the two girls sat in silence. It was a little awkward – neither of them knew each other very well, as Phillip was the only thing they had between them. Mulan found herself with very little to say. Time ticked by, and Mulan found her thoughts continually drifting back to Phillip. That was to be expected – he was why she was there, after all. What the hell was he thinking, getting into a fight like that? She would've thought he'd know better.

Before she could ask Snow how Phillip had got into the fight, a doctor arrived, telling him that Phillip was ready to take visitors. Mulan stood immediately, and Snow let her go in on her own. It wasn't a far walk to get to Phillip's room – the doctor only had to lead her down a few corridors before they arrived.

Phillip looked exactly as Mulan expected – black eye, bruised jaw, bandage around his head. He looked, quite frankly, terrible, but Mulan was glad to see him. She grabbed a chair and pulled it towards his bed, and he regarded her with lidded eyes.

"Ok, so first of all, you can tell me what the hell you were doing getting into a fight like that."

"Nice to see you too," Phillip groaned, propping himself up a bit in order to talk to her.

Mulan gave half a smile. "Hey, I just need the details so I know who to beat up at school tomorrow."

Phillip chuckled, an action which seemed to cause him a bit more pain than he expected. "No offence, but you wouldn't stand a chance."

"Try me."

"Gaston."

At that, Mulan spluttered. "Gaston? What were you thinking? Taking on Gaston? Ugh, I'd hit you myself if he hadn't made a thorough enough job of it."

Phillip gave a weak shrug. "He was being a real creep to Aurora, so I-"

"Wait, wait, wait," Mulan said, holding up her hands. "Did you say Aurora?"

"Maybe," replied a sheepish Phillip. Despite the purpling bruises that blemished his face, a hint of blush stained his cheeks.

Mulan folded her arms, leaning back in her chair. "Are you trying to tell me that you got into a fight with Gaston – probably the toughest guy in school – for Aurora?"

Phillip nodded stiffly, and Mulan, despite the circumstances, began to laugh.

"Oh my god, you really do love her, don't you?" Mulan asked, looking at him in earnest.

"Yeah, I think I do."

Sucking on her lip, Mulan couldn't quite believe the lengths Phillip was willing to go to for the bitchiest girl in school. She'd always thought Phillip's crush on her was just that – a crush that would go as soon as it came. But apparently not. Despite her constantly turning him down, despite her telling him directly to his face that she wanted nothing to do with him, he still put himself on the line for her.

And that, Mulan thought, was beautiful.

* * *

Snow rested her elbow on her knee, glancing up at the ticking clock of the hospital waiting room. It had been fifteen minutes since Mulan had gone in to see Phillip. She supposed he had a lot of explaining to do – throwing himself in danger for a girl like Aurora was far from sensible in anyone's eyes. But she had to commend him for it, especially since she heard exactly what Gaston had been doing to the poor girl. It was disgusting that he felt like he could do that to her.

Suddenly her phone buzzed, distracting her from her thoughts. She picked it up to find a text from Florian.

 _You still at the hospital?_

Deciding she wanted to hear his voice, Snow rang him up instead of texting her reply. She barely had to wait for him to pick up – she heard his voice the moment she lifted the phone to her ear.

"Got my text, then?"

"Mhm. I'm in the hospital waiting room now – where are you?" Snow asked, crossing her legs over.

"Still at Aurora's. We called the police on Gaston, which was really satisfying, by the way."

Snow smiled. "I'm glad. Gosh, I just feel so disgusting when I think of people like that."

"Good thing you're not one of them. Anyway, how's he holding up?" Florian asked, his voice a little crackly over the phone.

"He's doing ok, I think," Snow answered, glancing over at the door Mulan disappeared through. "Mulan's with him now."

"Oh, good. God, she's gonna give him so much crap for this," Florian said with a laugh in his voice.

Snow mirrored his jovial tone. "Oh really?"

"Yeah. At practice, she's made it no secret that she thinks he deserves better."

Snow cocked an eyebrow. "Do you guys make a habit of talking about Phillip's love life?"

"No, it's just a subject she's passionate about."

Snow laughed. She knew that Phillip was close to Mulan – it was why she called her – but at that moment, she realised that there was more to them than she realised. It was sweet, to see two people care about each other so much. She was always grateful that those kinds of relationships existed, and that not all people would end up like Aurora and Gaston.

"Anyway, I think I'm gonna check in on Phillip. See you tomorrow?"

"Yeah, see you then."

Smiling, Snow told her boyfriend she loved him, and hung up.


End file.
